All Because of a Bet
by othlove419
Summary: After losing a bet Haley James unknowingly made, she is stuck fulfilling the promise of being Nathan Scott's girlfriend for two months. How is she going to get through this and will she feel the same way about him after the bet is over?
1. Let The Bet Begin

Just like every weekday morning, Haley James was waiting for her best friend, otherwise known as Brooke Davis, to pick her up to go to Tree Hill High.

She groaned to herself thinking about what today would bring. _"Maybe I could just not go to school.", _Haley kept thinking.

Normally, Haley didn't mind going to school. Her friends actually made fun of her for liking it. How could she not though? She had two great best friends and plenty of other friends, got great grades in her classes, tutored some of her classmates, and more recently Brooke had convinced, okay maybe it was more like forced, her to join the Ravens' cheerleading squad. Except this morning wasn't like and ordinary Monday morning. No. This Monday morning was the first day of the next two months that Haley would be stuck being Nathan Scott's girlfriend.

"_Stupid, stupid bet!",_ Haley cursed in her head. She kept thinking how this was all Brooke's fault. Even if it wasn't really she could at least blame her since she had been the one to drag Haley to that party last week even though Haley didn't really want to go. But no, she had to go to that stupid party and because of it she had to put up with Nathan for two whole months. And to make things worse she had to pretend to like him. This was going to be just great. She didn't even know whose stupid idea it was. Why did Nathan even agree to it? She had no idea. It was probably some idea some drunken idiot came up with and Nathan figured he could use it as another way to annoy her as much as possible, considering he seemed to be doing that every time they were near each other. It was usually a lot too because he just so happened to be the brother of her other best friend, Lucas Scott.

The sound of a car's horn snapped Haley out of her thoughts and she grabbed her bag and started making her way towards Brooke's light blue beetle.

"Brooke, this is all your fault! These next two months are going to be torture, thanks to you." Haley exclaimed while getting into the car.

Brooke playfully rolled her eyes, "Well, good morning to you too, Tutor-girl. And by the way, you were the one who agreed to the bet. Not me." as she sing-songed her last few words.

"Yeah, yeah, but you got me drunk. I told you I didn't want to drink. Actually I didn't even want to go to the party at all!" Haley defended.

"Tutor-girl, stop complaining because there's nothing you can do about it now. Everything will be fine. Besides, everyone knows that the Scott brothers are the hottest in this town so consider yourself lucky." answered Brooke as she got out of the car and eyed her boyfriend coming her way. "Speaking of Scotts, hi boyfriend!" she said happily greeting Lucas with a kiss.

After breaking apart from a reluctant Brooke, Lucas acknowledged his best friend since child-hood.

"Hey Hales, ready to get today over with?" he asked knowing that Haley really didn't want to pretend to be his brother's girlfriend. It's not like Nathan needed a pretend one anyway. He could have any girl he wants and he knows it to. That was just one more thing that pumped his cocky ego. Why Nathan wanted to do this was something no one knew and Lucas was determined to figure it out. His brother was a playboy, he always had a different girl, so why did he agree to Haley James pretending to be his girlfriend? All Nathan would say is that he doesn't back down from a bet. The one thing no one knows is what the bet was.

Haley groaned, "Ugh, yes, yes, yes! Today and the next two months please. Can we like fast forward or something?"

Haley then felt an arm sling around her shoulders. She turned her head to see Nathan coming up from behind her and let out a frustrated sigh.

"Now come on Hales," specifically using the name that Lucas was accustomed to calling Haley since childhood, "why would you possibly want to skip spending time with me?" he asked with that smirk she found so annoying playing at his lips.

She had no clue how she was going to survive this.

Haley stared the clock closely. She couldn't concentrate on whatever it was that her teacher was trying to explain to the class due to the fact she had so many thoughts on her mind. The day was almost halfway done and as soon as the bell rang it would officially be lunch time. Fortunately for Haley she doesn't have any morning classes with Nathan, but unfortunately for her she had lunch and two of her four afternoon classes with _him. "I probably won't even see him at lunch anyway, it's not like we sit together or anything. Well, except that one time he sat with us because he needed to talk to Lucas about some basketball thing and apparently he had to sit with us and eat while he talked to him." _she kept thinking as she prayed that in the next couple minutes of her teacher wouldn't call on her the one time she actually wasn't paying attention in class.

Finally, the bell rang as Haley slowly gathered all of her things into her bag and headed out of her classroom. What happened next was something Haley was definitely not expecting at all. Nathan was leaning against the wall next to the door. She didn't really think anything of it except that it was kind of odd for him to be there and kept walking. Nathan began walking next to her but, he didn't say anything and it was starting to get on Haley's nerves.

"Do you need something?" she asked him.

"No."

She was becoming frustrated and she was going to find out why he was there. "Okay, so if you don't need anything then why are you following me to my locker and walking next to me?"

Nathan smirked. "Just thought I'd walk my girlfriend to her locker before we go to lunch. No need to thank me Haley, I'm just being the nice guy I am."

When hearing the last part of his sentence Haley let out a laugh. "You have got to be kidding me! One, you are not a nice guy. Two, we are not going to lunch together. We don't even sit together." she explained to him while shutting her locker and heading towards the quad.

"Haley, how could you say such horrible things to your boyfriend? That is so unlike you. And I know you don't think I'm not a nice guy that you wouldn't want to have lunch with."

He really did know how to get on her nerves when he wanted to, which was basically all the time. She decided the best way to put up with him was to ignore him the most she possibly could and that was exactly what she was going to try to do. Therefore, she bit her tongue to refrain from saying anything to him and settled on rolling her eyes.

They finally reached the quad and Haley spotted Brooke and Lucas sitting together at their regular table. Except today there was an extra person sitting there; Peyton Sawyer. Sure, Peyton was also on the cheerleading squad and Brooke and Haley were friendly towards Peyton she didn't normally sit with them during lunch, not that Haley minded. It was one more person she could talk to instead of having to talk to Nathan since he just had to sit with them today. Hopefully, it would only be today.

As they sat down at the table, unfortunately next to each other, Brooke, Lucas, and even Peyton gave them a weird look.

"What are you guys doing? Sitting here, together?" Brooke asked. She was so confused. She didn't think Haley would let Nathan sit with them even if she had to be his girlfriend. What was going on?

Haley decided to respond before Nathan could make anything up as to why he was sitting here. "Oh, Nathan thought, and I quote, he would be the nice guy he supposedly is and walk me to lunch and it doesn't end there because he has to sit with me too. Isn't that just great guys? Yeah, I thought so too." she explained with sarcasm dripping off her words.

"Hales, you know that you love me sitting here with you." Nathan answered while casually slinging his arm over her shoulders. She glared at him and shrugged him off.

"Anyway, Hey Peyton, what's going on?" Haley asked her.

"Nothing really. I hope it's okay that I'm sitting here. I know we haven't really hung out much outside of cheerleading practice and basketball games."

"No, it's definitely fine. We should hang out more outside of school anyway. Better you than him, right?" Haley responded referring to Nathan by pointing at him.

The rest of the lunch period went surprisingly well. Haley avoided talking to Nathan as much as she could except for the occasional jabs at each other. Nathan and Lucas talked about the upcoming basketball game. Haley, Brooke, and Peyton talked about all kinds of things and Brooke had decided all three of them were going shopping this weekend. The bell rang signaling the end of the period and they all went off to their separate classes. Even in the two classes that Haley had with Nathan he actually didn't bother her and she was able to focus on her schoolwork.

It was now the end of the day and Haley was at her locker getting together her books for tutoring this afternoon when Nathan came up to her.

"Haley, just the person I was looking for."

"And why might that be?" she asked in a completely bored tone.

"Just wanted to tell you I'm going to pick you up tomorrow at seven for our first official date." he smirked.

Haley stared at him completely speechless. He was joking right? Of course he was. He had to be. "You're kidding. We're not going on a date Nathan."

"No, I'm not joking. Why wouldn't I take my girlfriend on a date. It's kind of the rules we go on a date, don't you think? So like I said, seven. Be ready." he told her and walked away before she had the chance to respond.

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**Hey guys, this is my first fanfic so tell me if I should continue or not. Please review so I know. Thanks.**


	2. Change Your Mind About Me

**Hey guys, thanks so much for the reviews. I wasn't sure if anyone would like the story, but anyway here's the second chapter. For all of who asked, you'll find out about the bet throughout the story.**

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Haley was sitting in her room, music was playing but she wasn't really listening. She was trying to figure out how this all happened. How did she end up being Nathan's girlfriend? Nothing came to mind. She couldn't remember what happened last week. Her mind kept drifting back to the night of the party her, Brooke, and Lucas went to. That's when it happened, she knew that much. She closed her eyes and sighed thinking about it again.

_She was in her room studying for her upcoming English test. Sure she had already studied for this test but, she just wanted to double check to be positive she knew everything. Reading over her essay answer one last time she heard someone calling her name while coming up the stairs of her house. She must have been really focused since she didn't even remember hearing the doorbell ring. Her bedroom opened and Brooke appeared before her. Knowing with Brooke here she wouldn't get anymore studying done she closed her books and greeted her best friend. _

"_Brookie! What are you doing here? I thought you were hanging out with Lucas today."_

_Brooke came over and sat on the bed next to Haley. "I already did that. I'm meeting up with him later anyway. There's a party tonight at Bevin's house and you, my oldest and bestest friend, are coming with."_

"_Brooke, I don't really feel like going to a party. I have an English test coming up. I should study." _

_Brooke pouted. "Tutor-girl! You study like twenty four-seven. You're going to get an A anyway and don't even try to deny it. Please, please come to the party with us. Don't make me drag you there." _

"_If I say yes will you let me study?" Haley asked her already knowing she was going to end up caving anyway. Besides, Brooke would actually physically pick her up and carry her there if she really wanted to._

_She could see Brooke thinking about this before nodding her head agreeing and replying with an "I guess so." Haley laughed at her friend's antics. And they agreed that Brooke and Lucas would come by and pick Haley up to go to the party later night. _

"_See you tonight Tutor-girl. We're going to have so much fun!" Brooke exclaimed before exited the room and then the house._

It wouldn't have been as big as a problem if it hadn't been Nathan. As long as she could remember her and Lucas were best friends. Their mothers met at the café that Karen, Lucas' mother, owned. One day Lydia James and Haley were on their way home and Lydia decided to stop for a cup of coffee. Lydia and Karen started talking and realized they liked talking with each other. Karen informed Lydia she has a son Haley's age. Soon enough, Lydia and Haley would go by the café more often and both the adults and children had become friends. It wasn't until middle school when Haley and Brooke became best friends as well. Brooke started hanging out with Haley and Lucas and the three of them formed a special friendship. Freshman year of high school then came and the two middle schools of the town came together in one high school, Tree Hill High. That's when Lucas and Nathan began seeing more of each other due to the fact they both were on the basketball team. They decided it was best if they just tried to get along with other. It wasn't their fault their dad was an ass and got both of their mother's pregnant. After a few months they noticed they had more in common than their love for the game of basketball and started becoming more like friends and eventually even brothers over the past two years. Once Nathan and Lucas became more like friends they started hanging out more outside of school. Ever since Haley met him she always remembered Nathan being an ass. He was always so cocky and mean, especially to her. They just didn't get along and that's when the fighting started. Whenever they were near each other for even a time frame of five minutes they bickered.

Looking at the clock she saw it was almost six o'clock and figured that even though she didn't want to go she should start getting ready for the party that Nathan was taking to her to. It wasn't like she had a choice on going. He just told her and left. Getting up she walked over to her closet and looked over her clothes to think about what to wear.

About an hour later she was making her way down the stairs of her house and walking out her front door to where Nathan's car was. They had been driving for about five minutes and neither one had said anything yet. It was more of an awkward silence then it was a comfortable one. She hated awkward silences. The silence was even worse then the fighting.

"So why exactly are we going to this party?" she asked him. She would definitely rather be at home right now. At least when she got there she could maybe try to get rid of Nathan and find Brooke and Lucas, if they weren't dancing or making out that was.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw Nathan smirk. What was it with him and that stupid smirk? It was always on his face. She hated it so much. "Just trying to be a good boyfriend. Good idea, don't you agree?"

Haley glared at him. Why was he being so calm about this? Probably because he knew she was annoyed. He had to know how much he was bothering her, first by bringing her, then with him smirking all the time, not to mention his stupid comments like the one he just made. This was going to be a long night if she had to be around him the entire time.

She must have been lost in her thoughts because she didn't seem to notice that the car had stopped and Nathan was getting out. She looked out the window and they had pulled up to Tim's beach house. That's where this weekend's party was being held. He claimed it was his turn or something like that. She actually felt a little bad for Tim. He had friends, except sometimes they would make fun of him for his lack of knowledge and he didn't even know it, even when it was right in front of him.

After entering the house, together, she used all of the people coming over to talk to Nathan to her advantage. With all those people around she could try to sneak off and find her friends. She slipped away and made her way towards the kitchen. She couldn't seem to find any of her friends anywhere. Where was Brooke when you needed her? Knowing this night was going to be very long she thought about filling up a plastic cup, but decided against it and started wandering around the house. Haley didn't really drink that much except for when Brooke would make her play some stupid drinking game.

Haley was sitting on the back porch swing looking out at the ocean waves crashing against the sand when the back door opened and someone came out. He didn't see her there at first so she just watched him standing there staring off into space. She wasn't sure whether she should make her presence known or not, so she just kept quiet deciding it was probably for the best. He finally went to sit down on the swing, still not even noticing her there, probably because he seemed lost in thought. After sitting down he realized he wasn't the only one sitting there and saw Haley next to him.

"Hi." She said to him. She didn't know what to say to him. He was kind of acting strange, being quiet and out here instead of inside where the party and all his friends were.

"Hey." He acknowledged her.

"So, um, what are you doing out here instead of being in there?"

He still didn't look at her. He was just staring at the waves like she had been previously. "Don't know. Just wanted to get of there I guess. It was getting kind of old. The same thing all the time. You know?"

"Yeah, I guess so." This was awkward. She cleared her throat. "So this is kind of weird, right? I mean like us being civil to each other? No bickering."

He finally turned his head to face her. "Yeah, just a little bit. So what are you doing out here anyway?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know, passing time I guess. Not a lot of my friends are here tonight and the ones that are, aren't coherent enough to have a conversation with because of them being drunk and all."

He nodded. "So, I don't really think I want to be here anymore. Want me to take you home? I know you probably didn't even want to come anyway, right?"

"No, that's not true...okay maybe it is. Alright let's get out of here. I'm kind of tired anyway."

They got up and walked around the side of the house so they wouldn't have to walk through the house and get stuck staying even longer. The ride to Haley's house was silent. No talking. No radio. Nothing. Except it wasn't the awkward silence like it was on the way there, it was more of a comfortable silence. When they finally pulled up to her house she started to get out, but stopped halfway.

"Thanks for bringing me home. Sorry you didn't have fun. And we should talk like that more, you know, I mean, um, if you want to. It's not like we have to or anything. I was just saying that it's, um, different then we are fighting. You know, but it's totally up to you. Not that you have to decide right now or anything-"

"Haley," He cut her off. "you're rambling. And yeah, let's talk not argue. See you on Monday, girlfriend." He smirked.

"Okay. Bye, Nathan." And with that she shut the car door and walked up the walkway to her house as he drove away. Both of them thinking about the night's events. Both realizing this was most likely the first time they actually had a real conversation instead of fighting with each other.


	3. Harder Everyday

**Hello again. Thanks for those of you who reviewed the last chapter. I didn't get as many as I did for the first chapter so if there was something I should've done better feel free to let me know your opinions. Anyway, this next chapter is longer than the the previous ones. You get to know more about Nathan. I hope you like it. Please review and let me know what you think. Thanks.**

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He lay on his bed in his dark room staring at the ceiling while throwing a small basketball up into the air, catching it repeatedly. Turning his head so he could look at the clock that sat on the night stand next to the bed, he read the bright green numbers displayed there. Two thirty-five. He sighed, closing his eyes for a minute before opening them again. He knew he wasn't going to fall asleep anytime soon. He had already been trying to go to asleep for close to two hours now. So he continued to just lay there. It wasn't like there was anything else for him to do at two thirty in the morning. To make things worse he had to go to school in about six hours and so far he hadn't even slept for five minutes.

There was something keeping Nathan awake, but he just couldn't figure out what it was. Now he was going to be tired all day long, especially at basketball practice that afternoon. He could see it now, today would be one of those days when his father would unexpectedly drop by the gym and just watch the practice. He would watch every move he made and then the second practice was officially over he would start listing every single thing that Nathan did wrong, belittling him about what he could of done better, what he didn't do at all, what he should have done when this or that happened. He hoped, no he prayed, his father wouldn't come today. Out of all days, definitely not today, when he most likely wouldn't even be able to stay awake long enough to make three free throws. Today was going to be a really long day. Nathan could feel it now. Maybe if he could fall asleep now he would get enough sleep so that he wouldn't end up falling asleep in class or screwing up at practice due to tiredness. Tossing the mini basketball on to the floor he flipped over to lay on his stomach. Nathan desperately wanted to sleep, but he just couldn't. Why wasn't sleep coming to him? What was keeping him awake? He didn't know.

His mind drifted off to all the things that happened that weekend. He went to another party at Tim's beach house. These parties were beginning to get old. The same people went, they did the same things as they did every time there was a party and if he was honest it wasn't really that much fun any more.

The rest of the weekend he didn't really do too much. He wasn't really in the mood to do anything. He played a one on one game with Luke at the Rivercourt. It was one of the only times when he could actually play basketball without all the pressure that came with playing on a team. He liked when it was like that, just for fun, with his brother or his friends. When they were only playing because they loved the game. No other reason. No one pressuring him to be the best, make all the shots, win the game, it was just for fun.

Also his mother stopped by to visit him. After becoming emancipated from his parents and then his parents finally divorcing each other, his mom was always wanting to see him as much as possible. She gave him the same speech that she would give him every time she came by, saying how she misses him, that she wanted to make up for all the times that she would use work to get away from Dan, consequently being away from Nathan also. She told him how he could come and live with her anytime he wanted, that all he had to do was bring his stuff over. She then proceeded to bring him groceries and "accidentally" leave some cash on the counter. He loved his mom, he really did, especially for what she would do for him, things like doing his grocery shopping and giving him money even though he told her she didn't have to and that he would get a job to pay his rent. She refused though, like every time he would say that. She would reply with something along the lines of him being a seventeen year old junior in high school, therefore, he should focus on school since she had the money to pay for his rent and that was what she wanted to spend it on. At least it was coming from his mother. If his father had been paying the rent he would use is to his own advantage all of the time. He would probably be coming over the apartment all the time, not that he left Nathan alone anyway. His father would use it to try and get Nathan to do what he wanted and if Nathan didn't comply he would simply threaten to stop paying for the apartment. Those were the kinds of things that your father did when his name was Dan Scott.

The only thing out of the ordinary that happened was him and Haley not fighting. They had a real conversation on Friday night on Tim's back porch swing. He didn't even know she was out there when he went out back. Sure, he noticed she wasn't near him when he was inside, but he didn't know she was outside, by herself. Nathan had originally went outside to escape from the party. He didn't know why he was there, no that was a lie, he knew exactly why he was there, but that didn't mean he wanted to be there. After seeing that Haley was out there, also not having fun, he offered to take her home considering he was the one that brought her there in the first place. It was different, not arguing with her. Good different though, he liked it. That was the only good thing that had happened that night and he was surprised, but glad, when she had told him that she wanted them to talk more often instead of fighting. It was probably about time anyway. Even though it would be a different and probably hard transition. Seriously, they had fought for years, almost two years to be exact, and it's not like it did them any good. It annoyed their common friends and he was kind of tired of it too. He was becoming friends with his "girlfriend."

Nathan's alarm clock blared throughout the room. He hit the snooze button almost immediately. He hated the noise of alarm clocks. The clock said seven o'clock and he got up wondering when he had actually fallen asleep. He didn't remember falling asleep at all. He probably only got like two or three hours of sleep. He got ready to go to school and headed off for the long day that he knew was coming his way.

By the time he got to school there wasn't much extra time before first period was about to start. Thankfully, he had made it through his morning classes without falling asleep. He wasn't paying attention, but at least he was awake. All he had to do was stay awake for the rest of the day. He made his way towards the quad, seeing as it was time for lunch. Looking to his left he saw Brooke, Haley, Lucas, Peyton, and his teammate Jake all laughing about something. _"When did Peyton and Jake start sitting there?",_ he wondered. Then looking to his right was all the rest of the guys on the team, where he usually sat. Something made him not want to sit there. The fact that it would make things with Haley appear to be more real might have been put into consideration, seeing as he needed people to think this was real. So, he went to the left and sat down in between Haley and Lucas. They all stopped their conversations and looked at him.

"Hey Nate, what's going on? You look like you're going to pass out any minute now." Lucas spoke to his brother.

"Hey. Yeah, I didn't get that much sleep last night. I think it was three hours at the most. Just couldn't get to sleep. Thanks for pointing that out to me."

"You sure you weren't with some faceless hook-up last night? Oh that's right you can't do that anymore because you have a girlfriend, right Tutor-girl?" Brooke joked.

Haley had to bite her tongue to keep from saying anything and joining in on Brooke's taunting. With this whole new trying to be friends thing she had going on with Nathan she decided it would most likely be the smartest thing if she just didn't say anything at all. This was going to be difficult and she knew that there was a big possibility that she would slip and say something that would cause the both of them reverting back to their old ways, making jabs at each other. She couldn't help it, it was in her nature, she had to say something. It was like she was being taunted. She was about to cave. She could feel it. She opened her mouth to speak, but looking at Nathan she closed it again and refrained from speaking. Thank God she had managed to keep her remarks to herself. The only way she was going to survive these next two months was if they became friends. Real friends.

Everyone at the table was staring at Haley. They were waiting for her to make a jab towards Nathan off of what Brooke had said, even though everyone knew Brooke was joking, but Haley wouldn't be. They all continued to look at her when she didn't say anything and some more when her mouth opened and then closed again immediately after. Eyes widened and eyebrows got raised. She didn't say anything. Nothing at all. What was going on?

"Tutor-girl, are you okay? What's going on?" Brooke asked. She was seriously concerned for her best friend. Something had to be wrong with her if she wasn't teasing Nathan. She basically thrived off it because it was the easiest way for her deal with him.

Haley looked at Brooked slightly confused. "Brooke, I'm fine. Why? Do I not look okay or something?"

"Um, no I wouldn't say that. Although, I would say what is wrong with you because I just gave you the perfect opportunity to mess with Nathan and you didn't even say anything! Nothing! You always take whatever chance you get to mess with him. What's going on? Did someone drug you?"

"Brooke! No one drugged me. After the party on Friday, that none of you bothered to show up at leaving me all alone by the way, Nathan and I came to the conclusion that we should at least try to be friends considering the "arrangement" we are currently in, which has to be all his fault by the way, because I have no clue how I got stuck in this situation, but when I do remember I know I'm going to be really mad at someone. Trust me, I had to bite my tongue to keep from saying anything. It isn't easy." Haley explained before realizing she had just said that she had a hard time being nice to Nathan right in front of him. She turned to looked at Nathan. "Sorry. I meant, well I didn't mean...sorry." She tried to apoliogize.

He just nodded. This was going to be even more difficult than he thought it was going to be. "Whatever."

During the the rest of the lunch period Nathan and Haley didn't speak a word to each other. They talked a little bit to the other people sitting with them, but they wouldn't even look at each other. They were going to have to take this friends thing slowly.

"I'll talk to you guys later. Whitey wanted to see me today to talk to me about something." Nathan said as he got up from the table and left.

"So, Haley, that was interesting, huh?" Brooke questioned once Nathan had left the group.

Haley shot Brooke a glare and ignored her. She felt a little bad for what she had said earlier. After all wasn't it her idea for her and Nathan to be nice to each other?

Nathan made his way into the gym and towards the boy's locker room. He walked through it and found Whitey sitting at his desk in his office. He knocked on the open door making his presence known. Whitey looked up from the papers he was reading, he had been waiting for Nathan to make an appearance in his office today. Taking his reading glasses off and setting them down on the desk before him he motioned with his hand for Nathan to come in and take a seat.

"Hey Coach, you wanted to see me?" Nathan asked. He didn't know what Whitey could possibly have to talk to him about.

"That's right. Nathan, are you aware that you need to have at least a C average in all of your classes to participate in the school's sports programs?"

"Yeah, so?" What did this have to do with him?

"Nathan," Whitey started. "you currently have a D average in your English class and if you don't bring your grades up you will have to be suspended from the basketball team. Now, I don't want to do that to you, but I don't really have a choice unless you bring your grades up. Principal Turner suggested to me that you get a tutor to help you out this way we know you're getting help with your grades and you can still play basketball with your D as long as your tests grades continue to increase." His coach finished explaining to him.

Nathan stared at Whitey. Suspended from basketball unless he got a tutor? A tutor? He didn't need a tutor. At least he didn't think he did, but he also didn't realize he had a D in English class. _"This sucks."_, he thought to himself. "So, I just need a tutor until I get my average up?"

"That's right. Principal Turner already assigned you to one just in case you agreed. Here." He handed Nathan a blue piece of paper a little bit bigger than the size of a post-it. "You are excused from practice today because we have to make sure this will work out. After your first session you can set up times with your tutor around both your schedules. Got it?" Nathan sighed and nodded. He didn't want a tutor and he didn't want to miss practice. "Good, get to class. I want you to continue being on this team."

Nathan left the office and walked to his next class. Oddly enough it just so happened to be English. He tried to pay attention, but he just couldn't focus. After his last couple classes the day was over and he was dreading going to the Tutoring Center. He didn't want a tutor. He was probably going to be stuck with some kid you would treat him like he was stupid and Nathan would get angry and then the whole thing would be a disaster. Nathan didn't even notice how low his grades were getting, he was always preoccupied thinking about something else, usually basketball.

It wasn't like his parents pushed him to study or anything. His mom didn't want to upset him anymore than she already had by not being a good mom when he needed her and his father didn't care if he failed or not as long as he was the best basketball player, but not better than his dad, of course. There wasn't anything he could do about it now, he had to get tutored or no more basketball and that couldn't happen. Basketball was his escape even if it came with unwanted pressure. He would get tutored until he brought his average up enough to play basketball and then he would be done with it. That was his plan.

When he walked in to the Tutoring Center and saw Haley sitting at one of the round tables reading something or studying something, he wasn't really sure.

Haley looked up from her books and saw Nathan walk in the door.

"Nathan, what are you doing here?" She asked him. He never came to the tutoring center.

"Uh, apparently I need a tutor for English." He told her and pulled out the blue piece of paper that Whitey had handed him earlier that day.

Haley took the paper and looked over it and then checked the new list of kids she was tutoring that she had just received not even ten minutes ago. "Looks like your my new student."

"Great." Nathan muttered under his breath, but Haley had heard him clearly.


	4. Breaking Up and Making Up

**Hey everyone, I want to thank those of you who did review the last chapter. I'm getting a lot of hits for the chapters, but not that many reviews so I don't know if you like it or not. Please let me know if you do, even if you don't please help me see what I'm doing wrong. Thanks alot. So here's a longer chapter for you. School's starting this week so I'll try to get the next chapter done as soon as I can. Definitely another two chapters this week, I hope. So Thanks again. Don't forget to please review. **

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_Three hours, five pairs of jeans, ten different tops, fifteen pairs of shoes, and a shade of lipgloss later, Brooke Davis was finally ready to go. She stuffed the lipgloss she decided on and her cell phone into her favorite purse and grabbed her jacket before heading down the stairs into the living room, where she knew her boyfriend was waiting for her. They were about to be on their way to go to Bevin's party, but first they had a pit-stop they needed to make. It was time to go get their best friend, Miss Haley James. As she bounded down the stairs she could tell Lucas must have had been there for a while now given the fact that he looked like he was so bored that at any given moment he was going to fall asleep on the Davis' enormous brown couch with the huge plasma flat screen TV still turned on to some basketball game._

_"Come on Lucas, let's go! Haley is waiting for us." She called out to him and sing-songed her last sentence as she was already beginning to walk out of the Davis' red front door to get into the car. Once Lucas got in the car, they headed towards Haley's house. Brooke called Haley to let her know they were now on their way and she better be ready to go as soon as they got there, they had valuable partying time they had to make up for. Apparently, Brooke thought that everyone took as long as her to get ready, except that obviously wasn't the case. Lucas didn't know anyone who took longer than Brooke to get ready to go somewhere and he hoped he never had to meet anyone who took longer than her because she took long enough._

_Due to Tree Hill being the small town that it is, it had only taken about five minutes later until they pulled up to Haley's house where she was obedientally following Brooke's strict orders, sitting on her front porch waiting for her two best friends to arrive. Seeing the car pull up, Haley walked off the porch and got in. _

"_Hey Hales, Brooke's dragging you to the party too?" Lucas joked knowing that his girlfriend never passed up any opportunity to party. Brooke was a party girl, the life of the party, it didn't start until she arrived. That was just who she was, but that was all part of the charm she had that made you love her. She loved partying, especially due to her shining, outgoing, and over-all friendly personality. She was a people-person, there was no doubt about that. Plus, it gave her one more reason to go to the mall and shop for a new outfit and don't forget finding a pair of coordinating shoes. Brooke would never, ever pass on the chance to go shopping. Shopping was Brooke Davis' expertise. _

"_Yes, actually she is." Haley played along, even though Brooke did have to convince her to come, but that wasn't unusual. Brooke was always trying to find ways to persuade Haley into going to parties. Haley was Brooke's opposite. They had different personalities, but both had big hearts and that was part of what made them best friends. What one girl had the other didn't and they brought out the hidden qualities in each other. While Brooke liked to go partying, Haley would rather stay at home watching movies or reading a good book. Except, even when Haley really didn't want to go, she went anyway, all because of Brooke. Brooke could be a very persuasive person when she wanted or needed to be._

_Brooke scoffed. "Oh please, if it wasn't for me, you two losers would both be sitting in your houses right now. You, Lucas Scott, would be reading would be some book, that smells old and was written by a guy who died like one hundred years ago, and you, Tutor-girl, would be in your room, sitting at your desk studying things you probably already know. Neither of can deny it either because you both know that I'm right. You're lucky I stick around."_

"_Oh yes Tigger, what would we ever do without you in our lives?" Haley laughed._

"_I do not know and hopefully for you two, you won't ever have to find out. You're very lucky that I like you both so much." Brooke said, satisfied with her answer. "Anyway, we're here. It's time to party! Come on, you two nerds." She joked._

_By the time the three of them pulled up to the house, there was already tons of people everywhere. The party had definitely started long ago. They squeezed their way through the crowded rooms, trying to get around the house. Loud music was blaring through the stereo speakers. People were dancing all throughout the living room and couples were making-out on the couch. The keg and classic, red, plastic cups were sitting in their respective places in the one of the corners of the kitchen and it seemed as if a couple of guys from the football team were already starting to set up a game of beer pong in Bevin's backyard. _

_They made their way into the kitchen where people were filling and re-filling their plastic cups. Lucas made his way over to the keg and filled up one cup for himself and one for Brooke, before turning to Haley and asking her if she wanted one. You never knew if she was going to drink or not. It was totally random when she did._

"_Um, I don't know..." She trailed off. _

_Brooke cut in. "Oh come on Haley, it's only one drink and besides, it's a party. You need to have fun and let loose a little."_

_Haley thought about this and wondered if Brooke really thought that she couldn't let loose. Did everyone think that about her? She could let loose. If she really wanted to, she just usually didn't feel the need to. She shrugged her shoulders and nodded her head. "Yeah, give me a cup please." She took the cup Lucas offered her and took a sip._

"_Come on Broody, let's go dance." Brooke said to her boyfriend before turning to Haley. "We'll be back soon, Tutor-girl."_

_After Brooke and Lucas left to go dance, Haley wandered into the backyard. She stopped and watched the current game of beer pong that was going on. One of the guys from the football team, Haley knew from tutoring him last semester, had asked Haley to join the game and feeling the want to "let loose" a little more she had agreed. Apparently, she sucked at this game because it seemed like she was always drinking and her opponent wasn't. Although, with the drinking, Haley actually thought that she was winning. When the game was over, she went in the kitchen to fill her cup again, already starting to feel some of the effects the alcohol was taking on her._

"Okay, so then did you want to get started right now or do you have to go to basketball practice or something else, because we can start whenever you want really. It doesn't matter. It's your choice." Haley spoke quietly. She could tell he didn't actually want to be here and she knew there was nothing that she could do to change his mind about it. Plus, he was acting strange. He didn't seem like his usual cocky self at the moment.

"No, now. Whitey said I don't have to practice today because of this, so let's just get this over with, okay." Nathan told her. He wanted to get out of there as soon as possible. This was a complete waste of time in his eyes. If it wasn't for the fact he would get suspended from the basketball team he wouldn't have even came to the tutoring session at all, but basketball was really important to him so unfortunately, he had no choice except to go through with this.

"Okay." She agreed.

Nathan and Haley sat down at the round table that Haley had been sitting at before Nathan walked into the room. They pulled out Nathan's latest English assignment and went over it. As much as Haley talked to him and explained things to him, Nathan would hardly speak at all. He uttered a few words here and there to let Haley know that he was understanding what she was saying. It was starting to get to the point where Haley just couldn't take the one word sentences anymore. She was becoming so frustrated with him. No matter how hard she tried to get him to talk, he just wasn't cooperating with her. Even fighting with him was better than this and that says a lot coming from her. Finally, she had enough. Haley shut the book and looked at Nathan.

"Nathan, what the hell is your problem? Why are you acting like this? I don't know what is wrong with you or why you will hardly even speak to me, but I can't stand this anymore. I know that we don't really talk that much anway, but it's a lot more than right now. This is just ridiculous. If this is how you're going to act at every tutoring session then you can forget about me tutoring you. I will find you someone else because honestly, I can't deal with this. I don't know if this is because of what I accidentally blurted out at lunch earlier today, but I already apologized for that and I don't know what else you want me to say to you, Nathan. You have to focus during these sessions and not on if you're angry with me or not. I know we don't really get along that well but, I do want to try and even if you don't believe me, I really am sorry about before. So, it's up to you to figure out what you want. It's your choice." Haley told him and walked out of the room and left before Nathan even had the chance to respond to her little outburst.

The ball was definitely in his court right now. He couldn't believe that had just happened. He was in complete shock. The worst part was that he knew she was being sincere. He could hear it in her voice and he felt like a complete ass. Now he had to go find Haley and apologize. He didn't even know where to look for her or what he would even say to her once he did find her. He couldn't believe he let what Haley had said at lunch get to him like that. It wasn't even as if it was that big of an insult or that he wasn't used to it, because he was. They said those kinds of things to each other all the time, so what was the problem? What made this time any different? He didn't know why it had effected him as much as it did and he sure as hell didn't want it to show like he did, but he knew he was holding a grudge during the tutoring session from what had happened earlier that day. Maybe it was just false hope that they could eventually become friends, unless he could find her and convince her to try again and that they really could be.

What made Nathan feel even worse was that he was sort of using her in a way, and she didn't even know it. She didn't know everything that was going on. Then he had the nerve to be even more mean to her than he already was. He felt like crap. He was a jerk and right now he would be the first person to admit it.

He got up and made his way out of the Tutoring Center. Walking down the hallway he ran into his brother.

"Hey Nate. Dude, what happened? Why weren't you at practice?" Lucas could tell by his brother's expression that something happened. He just didn't know what it was or why his brother wasn't at basketball practice today.

Nathan sighed and rubbed a hand over his head. "Haley's pissed off at me."

Lucas looked at him confused. Since when did Nathan care if Haley was mad at him or not? "Why do you care? You never look this concerned when Haley gets mad at you and she's usually mad at you all of the time."

"No, I mean like she's really mad at me. I have to get tutored now, hence me coming from the Tutoring Center and not being at practice today, and guess who my tutor is? Yup, Haley. So she was tutoring me, or at least trying to, but I was being an ass, as usual, and she called me on my bullshit and sort of flipped out with out actually yelling and then she left before I could even say anything. It was bad, Luke. I mean like really bad." He explained.

"Woah! You must have really pissed her off, man, if she just left like how you explained it. If you want my advice, with Haley it's the best thing if you just give her space right now. Let her cool off, or you could make things even worse then they already are. She's pretty stubborn. You are going to suck up your pride and apologize, aren't you?"

Nathan sighed. "Yeah. Thanks for the advice, man. I got to go though. I'll see you later." Nathan said and turned to walk away.

"Anytime, little brother." Lucas responded, wondering how everything was going to play out. All he knew was that he didn't want to get involved in the middle of what ever was going on between his brother and his best friend. He still wanted to talk to Nathan about how the whole arrangement came to happen, but that could wait until later, or at least until Haley wasn't pissed off anymore.

After telling Nathan what she thought and walking out of the Tutoring Center, Haley was so frustrated. Fortunately, she didn't have anymore students to tutor that day so she could just leave, but she didn't feel like heading home just yet. So there she was, just walking around Tree Hill, trying to blow off some steam. She was wandering around aimlessly with no destination intended when she finally stopped walking and saw that she had ended up at the Market Street Docks. She walked over to one of the wooden tables and sat down with her elbows on the table and her chin resting in her hands.

No matter how much she tried to avoid thinking about it, her thoughts kept drifting to what happened with Nathan. Haley couldn't help but feel a small amount of hurt. Outside the party on Friday night, Haley had actually enjoyed talking to Nathan the way she would to talk to anyone else. It was a weird feeling, but only because they had never really done so before. She felt like they both put up these fronts that was only used towards each other and no one else. Personally, she hated it. After he had dropped her off from the party, she walked up to her house with a small smile on her face wondering if her and Nathan could actually be good friends in the future. Then, she went and ruined it all during lunch today. She was so naïve to believe that they could get along. It was just hard for her not to say anything because she was so accustomed to doing so, but she knew that if they both tried hard enough that they could do it. They both had to be completely willing to do so though or it wouldn't work and a friendship with each other would be hopeless.

Getting up from the table she was sitting at, she checked her cell phone and saw that it was already seven o'clock. She started walking home, remembering that she still had all of her homework to do.

Nathan had went back to his apartment after running into Lucas in the school hallway. He still felt like crap about the whole incident with Haley. When he got home, he had found some leftovers from his mother in the refrigerator, that he heated up in the microwave for dinner and then he actually did his homework. Okay, so it wasn't all of the homework, but at least he did some of it. That was something he didn't usually do. Now he was currently playing a couple of games of NBA live. He had been playing for about an hour or so before there was knock on his door. He paused his game and rolled his eyes. He wasn't in the mood for any company right now. People had the worst timing. Opening his door, he saw it was Tim and let out a breath of relief at seeing that it wasn't his father on the other side.

"Hey Tim, what are doing here?" He asked his best friend. Normally, he didn't really care if Tim came over, but he still had to find Haley and apologize to her.

"Yo Nate Dogg, what's crackin'? The Timster was in the hood and decided to stop by and see his main homie." Nathan rolled his eyes. Tim was always saying weird things like that and after a while you got tired of telling him that he wasn't black or to just talk like a normal person would. After all, Tim wasn't that normal anyway. Seeing the TV screen, Tim's eyes lit up. "Ooh, NBA live. You game?" He asked Nathan after letting himself into his best friend's apartment.

"Yeah, just a couple of games though, then I got something I got to do."

Tim was already restarting the game. "That's cool. The Tim is the hizz-ouse!" He exclaimed.

Ten minutes into the game, Tim turned to Nathan and asked him, "Yo Nate, this thing with you and that Tutor-Chick for real or what?"

Without taking his off the game Nathan muttered something that could be considered a 'yes' as his answer.

"Yeah, we'll your not winning that easily. You still got a while to go."

"Tim, shut up!" Nathan snapped and they continued playing their game.

After couple of more games of NBA live and thirty more minutes of trying to get Tim to leave the apartment, Nathan looked at the clock and noticed that it was almost close to eleven o'clock. He cursed to himself for not being more aware of the time earlier. He still never went to see Haley yet and he had to apologize tonight. This couldn't wait until tomorrow. He turned the TV off and grabbed his car keys off the counter before heading out his apartment door. As he went outside he realized it had started raining sometime earlier that night. He raced down the stairs to the parking lot where his car was parked and took off for Haley's house. Thankfully, Lucas had been friends with her long enough that he knew where she lived.

When he got to her house it was eleven-fifteen. He knew he couldn't go knock on their front door at this time of the night. Her parents were probably asleep because of work the next day and he didn't know what time Haley went to sleep every night. He needed to think of something. He wished he had Haley's phone number right now. He formulated a plan that would only work out of pure luck. He bent down and picked up a handful of stones from the garden in the front yard. He started throwing the stones at the only window with a light on and hoped that the room just so happened to belong Haley.

Haley was in her room reading a book, when she kept hearing this weird tapping noise. She didn't know what it was and ignored it, but whatever it was, it wasn't stopping. Putting her book down on her night stand, she got up off her bed and walked over to the window thinking that maybe it was a bird. When she got there she saw that it definitely was not a bird. It was a person. Whoever they were, they were throwing things at her window. She squinted her eyes to help her see who it was better, but her eyes quickly widened at realizing it wasn't just any person, it was Nathan. What the hell was going on?

When Nathan finally saw a person walking over to the window he was relieved and thankful to see that it was Haley, but disappointed when she walked away from the window. He stood there staring at the window, waiting for her to come back to it, but she wasn't. He threw another stone. She still didn't come back. As he was about to launch the next stone towards the window, the front door opened and Haley walked on to the porch wearing in a thin black tank-top and a pair of blue and purple plaid pajama pants.

"Nathan? What are you doing out here? It's raining out! You're getting all wet! Are you crazy?" She exclaimed. What was he possibly thinking?

Nathan ran over to the front porch, but didn't step onto it. "Haley, I know it's kind of late, but I had to come see you. I wanted to do this earlier, like right after you left the Tutoring Center today, but then I saw Luke and he said give you space and then Tim came over and I lost track of the time. Anyway, what I need to tell you is that I'm sorry. Sorry for acting like an ass during the tutoring session, and sorry for acting how I did at lunch today. It wasn't your fault. You were right, it is hard to not say anything mean to each other, but that's only because we are so used to doing it all the time. I don't want to be mean to you anymore, Haley. I'm tired of it. On Friday, when I dropped you off you said we should talk like how we did at the party more often and I agree. So, can you forgive me for being an ass and try to be my friend? Again?" He pleaded.

Haley sighed. "I want to be your friend too, Nathan. I think we could actually be really good friends if we wanted to be, but we both have to really want this or it isn't going to work out. I don't want to keep saying that we are going to be friends, but then we just aren't."

"I know and I want to try. Please?"

"I want to try to. And I am sorry for going off on you like I did in the Tutoring Center. You just really know how to frustrate me, you know?" She laughed. By this time the rain had stopped completely.

"Yeah, I'll try to work on that if you do the same?" He joked.

"So we're going to be friends? For real this time?" Haley asked.

"For real. So are you going to come give your new friend and current boyfriend a hug?" He asked.

Haley smiled. "I guess I could give my friend a hug." She stepped off the porch and went to give Nathan a hug. When she did she got all wet and quickly pushed him away. "Nathan! You're soaked and you made me hug you! Now I'm all wet." She exclaimed.

Nathan smirked. "I know."

Her mouth opened and her eyes widened before saying "You totally did that on purpose!", and playfully whacking him on the arm.

He laughed. "Yeah, maybe I did. So, I'll see you at school tomorrow, okay?"

"Yeah, okay. Goodnight Nathan." Haley called out as she started going back inside her house.

"Goodnight girlfriend." He said with smirk while opening the car door and getting into his car and driving back off to his own home.

Both of them with smiles on their faces because of their new found friendship. Tomorrow their useless jabs at each other would finally be put to an end and they could move on from the grudges they've been holding against each other for the last two years. One of the best parts was going to be the reactions of their friends, when seeing Nathan and Haley get along. Hopefully, tomorrow was going to be a good day for the both of them.


	5. Bad Starts, Good Endings

**Hey everyone. Thanks for reviewing. Here's the next chapter. I'll try to get the next one out as soon as possible. Thanks. And please review!**

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"So Hales, are you ready for day number eight of being Nathan's fake girlfriend? How's that going anyway?" Brooke taunted her best friend. It was Thursday morning and Brooke had just pick up Haley from her house. They were on their way to school.

Haley groaned thinking about that topic. Sure her and Nathan were going to be friends now, but that didn't change the fact that she still had to be his girlfriend. She wished they could have a normal friendship. Haley didn't tell Brooke about her encounter with Nathan the night before yet, she wanted to see Brooke's facial expression and actions when she saw that Haley and Nathan were getting along. She already knew it was going to be priceless, no matter what. "Brooke, can we not talk about that right now. I already have to live it, therefore I don't really feel the need to talk about it all of the time. I have Nathan always throwing his arm around me and smirking as he calls me girlfriend instead of using me name. Then there's all of these people coming up to me asking if it really is true or if it's just a rumor and I have to say it is true while acting like I'm happy about it. Either I should be an actress after high school or these people are so gullible." She said as Brooke parked her car in the spot reserved for her and they got out.

"Fine, whatever you say H. James, if you don't want to talk about it we don't have to, yet, but we will have this conversation in full detail later. I'll be waiting. Don't forget we have cheer practice after school today. No getting caught up at tutoring, the classics are coming up soon and we have to beat the Bear Creek hoes."

Haley laughed. "Brooke, the classics are about another two months away! And I only forgot about practice once because of a tutoring session, it wasn't my fault. I think the clock was broken or something." She tried to make up a solid excuse even though she knew she just forgot about practice altogether.

"Uh-huh, just admit it, you, Miss Punctuality, were late and you know it. And who cares how far away the classics are, we still have to win, Haley. Haven't I taught you anything? We only have two more years of classics and we are going to win both of them." Brooke tried to explain to her best friend,even though Haley knew how important those competitions were to her.

"Okay Brooke, we are going to win both classic competitions, but I really have to get going. I have a tutoring session this morning. I'll see you at lunch, alright?" With Haley being in mostly advanced classes she didn't have any classes before lunch with Brooke and even then she only had one with her that afternoon.

"Fine Tutor-girl, go be the smart tutor that I know you are and make some idiot's grades go from an F to A. See you at lunch, best friend." Brooke said before bouncing away.

Haley laughed at her friend before heading towards the Tutoring Center. She was tutoring this morning instead of the usual afternoon because she had cheerleading practice that day. Brooke had first came to her in the beginning of the school year, begging her to join the squad because they needed another girl and none of the girls who actually tried out were qualified enough. Haley had taken a couple of dance classes when she was younger, but didn't really stick with it because of her being a natural klutz. Haley had profusely declined the spot on the squad, knowing that she was very clumsy. Plus, cheerleading just wasn't really her thing, not that she had anything against it. After Brooke kept begging and pleading, Haley had agreed to help Brooke out by cheering in one game while Brooke looked for another recruit. It turned out that Haley caught on to the moves pretty quickly and was actually quite good at it and Brooke being Brooke had lied when she said she was going to look for someone else. After the game was over, Brooke finally convinced Haley to become a real cheerleader instead of a fill-in until they found a good enough girl.

She had been trying to tutor this kid for the last fifteen minutes, but he just wouldn't pay attention to anything she told him. She hated it when kids came into the Tutoring Center saying that they needed to be tutored to get better grades, but then they didn't pay attention at all. Haley was getting frustrated with this kid, it was like he had the attention span of a goldfish. Thank God that she only had to be in here with him for another five minutes until class started. This boy would listen to half her sentence then he would start doing something else that didn't even have anything to do with tutoring. He trying to play with his cell phone a zillion times, loudly smacked his gum over and over, tapped his pencil on the wooden table over and over again, and turned his head to stare at the clock every two second. Does this kid not know that the time isn't going to go any faster just because he was looking at the clock? Not to mention that he wouldn't sit still for five seconds. How do you tutor someone who wouldn't pay attention? She was going to have to ask someone else to tutor him because this was just not working. Obviously, he didn't want to be there and Haley would rather tutor someone who actually wanted their grades to improve. This kid didn't even talk. Not one word since he got here. All he did was nod her head or shrug his shoulders. He was so aggravating. It wasn't even first period yet and she already wasn't having a good day.

After her horrible tutoring session, a pop quiz in her first class, a paper assigned in her third class, and an annoying kid kicking her seat during her fourth class, it was finally time for lunch. Haley figured her day would get better, since she would be able to relax with all her friends for the next forty-five minutes.

She shut her locker and headed towards the quad. Halfway there she ran into Nathan.

"If it isn't my newest friend, not to mention my so called girlfriend. Where were you this morning? I saw Lucas and Brooke in the quad and yet there was no Haley." He said to her as they continued to the quad and he slung an arm around her shoulders. This had to look real, he wasn't sure Tim believed it just yet. He was always such an idiot except when you wanted him to be.

"Well, if you must know, I had to spend my morning tutoring some kid. He was so frustrating. I couldn't stand him one bit."

"More frustrating than me?" Nathan questioned her.

"I can't believe I'm saying this, but yes, extremely more than you. I swear this kid had no attention span at all, he wouldn't sit still, he didn't even talk, he nodded and shrugged. It was like he didn't even want to be there and if that was so then why even come, you know what I mean?" She asked and looked at him while they walked to hers, and more recently his, regular lunch table where their friends were already seated and beginning to eat.

"No, not really, but that's only because maybe that kid thought he could you to do his homework for him and if that was the case then he's actually a pretty smart kid." He smirked as they sat down.

"Hey!" She whacked him on the arm. "I don't do my student's homework for them, if I did-" Haley stopped talking as she noticed the rest of the table was completely quiet and they were all staring at her and Nathan. "What are you guys doing?"

Brooke was the first to speak. "What's going on here?" She questioned with a raised eyebrow.

"What are you talking about, Brooke?" Haley asked her.

"You know exactly what I am talking about. You and Nathan. You guys are like mortal enemies, but here you are smiling and talking walking to lunch together and his arm was around you. What are you doing? Have you lost your mind, because the Haley James that we all know and love doesn't get along with her enemy. We want to know what the deal is, so spill." Brooke explained.

Haley looked at Nathan and then back at everyone else. "Nathan and I are friends." She said simply.

Everyone else's eyes widened at the simple five word sentence. "What did you just say?" Lucas asked. He had to have heard wrong because there was no way that she just said she was friends with her brother.

"She said we are friends. Is that okay with you or is that an inconvenience for you guys? " Nathan spoke.

"Okay, wow. Even I never thought you two would be friends and I don't really hang out with you guys that much." Jake told them.

"Alright, that's enough. I know that I didn't really get along with Nathan, but is it that big of a deal that we want to try not fighting and do normal friend things together?" Haley asked.

"Yes." They all spoke simultaneously.

"I thought you guys would be happy because now you don't have to hear us argue all of the time." Haley told her four friends.

"Yeah, you're always complaining that you're tired of listening to us. Now you don't have to anymore." Nathan added.

"Okay, well, we will just have to see this so called friendship lasts. Anyway how did this come to happen. I want details. There has to be something juicy and if not make it up for my entertainment purposes." Brooke said.

"Brooke, nothing happened. We're just as tired of fighting as you are of hearing it. What makes you think that we can't be friends. You said we'll see how long it lasts." Haley said to her.

"You couldn't have made up some extravagant story as to how you went from enemies to friends? You are no fun Tutor-girl. As for you and Nathan's new found friendship lasting, I didn't mean anything by saying that, I was simply stating my opinion, which is that you two won't be able to continue without all that banter. No harm done."

"Whatever, B. Davis. Can we talk about something other else now?"

"How about your relationship with Nathan?" Peyton suggested.

"Something that doesn't have to specifically do with me and Nathan?" Haley replied.

"Fine, but we are having a serious conversation about that later, remember. In full detail, by the way." Brooke said to Haley.

"Oh, Jake and Lucas, Whitey said practice is canceled today." Nathan told them.

"What? Why?" Jake asked.

"Don't know. I saw him in the hallway this morning and he told me."

"That's kind of weird. Whitey basically never cancels practice." Lucas said.

"Yeah, I know." He said before turning to Haley. "Hales, you think you can tutor me today since there's no practice?"

"You're tutoring him too? This is too much to take in all at once." Brooke said.

"Brooke, please shut up. Yes, Nathan, I can tutor you today after school, right Brooke?" Haley spoke.

"I guess so. It's not like we can use the gym if they aren't in there. There's no point anyway." Brooke said. "Peyton, practice is officially canceled today. Spread the word."

"Yes, mam." Peyton joked.

The remainder of the lunch period went pretty well. Brooke finally stopped asking questions about Nathan and Haley and Haley and Peyton discovered they both had a like for music and decided to go to the cd shop across from Karen's café, sometime that weekend.

After a couple more classes the school day was finally over. Haley was sitting in the Tutoring Center studying for upcoming test while she was waiting for Nathan to come in for his tutoring session.

"Hey. What are you doing? I thought you were supposed to be tutoring me, not studying for yourself." Nathan joked when he walked into the room and saw her fully concentrated on whatever it was she was looking over.

Haley looked up from her papers and saw Nathan sitting down at the table. "Hey, that was very funny, but I was studying because you were taking too long, Mr. Slow Poke." She responded.

"Slow, huh?" He asked her.

"Yes. Very slow. You know, for the star basketball player of the Ravens, I would have thought you might be a little faster. I guess I was wrong." She joked with him.

"I'll race you."

"What?" She asked laughing. That was random.

"To my car. Come on, lets go." Nathan replied.

"Where are we going? I thought I was going to tutor you."

"Come on, it'll be a lot more fun than this." He said getting up from the table, grabbing her hand and pulling her with him down the hall and out the school's double doors.

"Nathan, where are we going?" Haley asked.

"The beach." He said once they had gotten into the car and started driving.

They were the for awhile because it was starting to get to dark out. They were just having fun and being friends. When they were walking close to the ocean, Haley had tried to push Nathan into the water a couple of times, but she wasn't strong enough to get him to fall in or get far enough where he actually would get wet. They were sitting on the beach talking, when Haley suggested they start heading back down the beach to where Nathan had parked his car, near his beach house. She still hadn't done her homework, she was Tutor-girl after all.

As they were walking, Nathan got an idea in his head. In one swift motion he had picked Haley up and threw her over his shoulder and started walking towards the water.

"Nathan, what are you doing? Why are you walking near the ocean? Oh my God, Nathan, no! Put me down. Please, Nathan, don't." Haley begged. She started wiggling to try to get down, but it just wasn't working to her advantage.

"Consider it payback for when you kept pushing me in." Nathan told her.

"That is so not fair because you never actually got wet. Please, don't! I'm begging you. Please, Nathan!" She tried one more time.

"Hmm, I don't know. I'll think about."

"Please, would you really want to throw your new friend in. Think about it, I'll be wet and you have to drive me home, therefore, your car gets wet." She explained to him.

When he heard this he put her down. "You're lucky I don't want my car ruined."

They walked to Nathan's car and he drove her home. They rode mostly in silence except for their arguing about what kind of music to listen to. It wasn't like when they used to argue though, which us mean and hurtful. This was more friendly and carefree, not meant to be hurt the other person. When they pulled up to her house, Nathan turned the radio off and turned to talk to her before she got out of the car.

"So, was I right? That was more fun than tutoring, right?"

"Well, I don't know, I am Tutor-girl. You know I love school." She joked.

"Admit it, Hales, you had fun with me."

"Maybe I did, maybe I didn't. Guess we'll have to see. Bye fake boyfriend." She said to him before getting out the car and walking up to her house.


	6. Always You

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**It was Friday morning and the students of Tree Hill High School were piling in one after the other. Most of them were excited for two reasons. The first one being that is was the weekend and the school week was finally finished with. The second one being that the Ravens had a home basketball game later that day after school was over. Basketball was a big thing in the small town of Tree Hill. Everyone would be there to support the team, cheering them on as they played against Cove City. It wouldn't be the easiest game the Ravens would play that year, but they definitely had a good chance of winning, which was all they really wanted anyway. 

Haley, along with many of her fellow students, was walking through the blue double doors. She walked down the hallway heading towards her locker. She didn't have any tutoring sessions that morning so she didn't have rush to the Tutoring Center today. She was free to take her time and do what ever she wanted, for the most part, before her first class began. She loved the mornings that she tutored some of the other students she went to school with, but she couldn't say that she didn't appreciate the mornings she didn't have to tutor anyone, especially when she ended up tutoring kids like the one from the day before.

After collecting all the books she needed, she looked around checking to see if she could spot Brooke anywhere near by. After Brooke and Haley arrived at the school, Brooke claimed that she needed to find Peyton to ask her to pick out some music for the new cheerleading squad routines. Except instead of finding Brooke anywhere she saw Nathan standing at his locker.

Haley walked over to him and leaned against the locker next to Nathan's, waiting for him to shut his locker and notice her there. The friendship idea was working out pretty good so far. It hadn't been that long ago that they had been arguing with each other all of the time. She liked the idea of them being friends and she was starting to wonder why they hadn't ever tried this sooner. Haley thought back to her freshman and sophomore years of high school and she remembered that he was an ass, especially towards her, and that was why they never tried this sooner. She couldn't really remember what exactly had caused her and Nathan not to get along in the beginning, all she knew was that they just didn't like each other and preferred not to be around each other. They had a problem with that once Lucas and Nathan started to become friends to try and fix their broken brother relationship. After they started getting along was when Nathan started hanging out with them more often and that just added fuel to the fire, but now they agreed to put all of that behind them and start over as friends and so far so good because they hadn't fought with each other since. It was actually kind of nice if she thought about it.

"Hey Hales, what's up?" He said to her, shutting his locker and slinging his backpack over his right shoulder. It was a little weird seeing Haley standing at his locker, but a good weird. In the time he had spent arguing with her, he never got to notice certain things about her. He liked learning more about her. He had thought he had her all figured out, but then they decide to become friends and it's like she is a different person except for a few qualities still there.

Nathan had gotten to school earlier that morning than usual because Whitey called an unscheduled basketball meeting to go over a couple of plays he wanted to try out later that night against Cove City.

It seemed like Whitey and Brooke were thinking alike and already starting to prepare for the classics that were coming up in a couple of months. The gym was absolutely hectic around the time of the classics. Whitey made the boys practice twice as hard and Brooke turned into Cheer Nazi. It looked like they were getting a head start this year. Two months of a head start. They were both crazy.

"Hi. I was looking for Brooke, but I found you instead." She admitted to him. It's not like he would really care that she wasn't actually looking for him to begin with.

"Oh, I see how it is. I'm second choice, huh?" Nathan asked her in a joking manner.

"Um, no, not really. It just kind of happened that way." Haley told him. "Guess I got lucky though because if you actually were Brooke then you would be telling me about yourself and Lucas. After that you would be asking me all kinds of questions about cheerleading or probably you and I actually don't feel like talking about you that much right now."

"Well, I'm thinking that maybe that was a little bit offensive, Hales. Come on, why wouldn't you want to talk about me? I'm perfection." Nathan joked cockily.

"Uh huh. It's not really you that she would start examining me about, but more like our new friendship that she keeps bothering me about. She always has a new question about it. Anyway, I have people trying to talk to me about you all day long considering I'm supposedly your girlfriend."

"Really, well the girls at this school must not like to believe that we're together because they're still coming around like crazy. Actually, I'm surprised you let that happen. I kind of thought you would be more like a psycho girlfriend. Not that I'm complaining or anything."

"Did you just call me psycho?" Haley asked him.

"No, I said that's the kind of girlfriend that you seem like you would be." He explained to her.

"Obviously, I'm not. I have to go to class. Bye Nathan." She said walking away from him and into the classroom where her first period class was going to be held.

Her teacher started class and was explaining something to the class, but Haley was thinking about the conversation that she had just had with Nathan before this class started when she got a small smile on her face. Her thoughts continued drifting off and she knew there was no way she was going to be paying attention at any time during this class.

_She was walking, or more like stumbling her way into the house. She was so wasted. Normally, she never drank this much, but after getting a little bit tipsy playing beer pong and having a couple of drinks she just kept filling her cup. She would definitely regret this in the morning when she woke up with a killer hangover._

_Brooke was actually pretty sober compared to when she sometimes went to parties and got drunk. She started laughing as Haley was swaying from side to side, talking to Brooke incoherently. _

"_Haley, exactly how drunk are you?" Brooke asked her amused. She had never seen Haley drink that much before. What had this girl gotten into?_

_Haley crinkled her eyebrows as if she were in deep concentration. "Drunkkk? Not me." She declared with a smile before telling Brooke goodbye and skipping off before Brooke could stop her._

_She went off to the dance floor and started dancing as well as she could with the amount of alcohol in her system. Haley couldn't really hold her alcohol that well and it was a surprise that she hadn't thrown up or passed out yet, not that she noticed. All she cared about at the moment was having fun and that was what she was doing._

_After she was done dancing she headed out to the backyard once again. There was another game of beer pong being set up and she unquestionably wanted to play. In her drunken state she wasn't aware that she could barely stand still in one spot for five minutes, let alone play a whole game of beer pong. Plus, the alcohol gave her more confidence and it made her think that she was good at the game, when in reality she wasn't good at all._

_While the game was being set up a guy from the basketball team came up to her. "So Haley, want to make this game count for something?" He asked her._

"_Huh?"_

"_You know, like make a bet?"_

"_A bet?" She asked._

"_Yeah, to make the game a little more interesting." The basketball player explained to her._

"_What's the bet and what are the rules?" She questioned him. If was sober right now this would never be happening. Stupid alcohol._

The bell rang indicating that the class was indeed over and Haley hadn't even noticed. She slowly gathered her belongings. She hadn't even realized the time. All throughout her classes that morning she hadn't really been paying attention. She casually wrote notes here and there, but she was always thinking about something else. Haley had been so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't even notice that it was her last class for the morning until the bell had brought her back to reality.

It was now lunch time and the perfect opportunity to put her new plan into motion. She was going to have as much fun with her current situation as she could and this would definitely be funny, at least to her.

Walking out to the quad, she spotted Nathan talking to a girl on the cheerleading squad named Theresa. Theresa had always liked Nathan and did whatever she had to get his attention. It was actually kind of pathetic if you asked Haley. Haley and Theresa never really got along anyway. Theresa was always trying to compete with Haley when it came to everything. She couldn't beat Haley at school so she tried going after everything else Haley had or wanted, hence Theresa being a cheerleader. Talking to Nathan may have not had anything to do with it though. She had always tried to get Nathan to notice her and most of the time it was one failed attempt after the other.

She walked right in between Nathan and Theresa and grabbed his hand in hers before turning to him. "There you are, boyfriend. I've been looking for you everywhere." She said while stressing the word 'boyfriend'.

Nathan turned his head and just stared at Haley. He was speechless and he was definitely in shock. What was she doing?

"Miss me?" She asked him before turning to the other person there. "Oh, hi Theresa. I didn't even see you standing there. Were you here the whole time? What are you doing here anyway?"

"I'm talking to Nathan, actually, or at least I was before we were interrupted." Theresa responded rather rudely to Haley. She never liked Haley.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you here talking to my boyfriend. I really didn't mean to interrupt anything important. It wasn't important was it?" Haley asked playing stupid.

"Yes." Theresa replied.

"No." Nathan said at the same time Theresa said yes.

"No? Good. So I'll see you before the game. Bye Theresa. Come on Nathan, let's go, I'm hungry." Haley said dragging Nathan off towards their table for lunch.

"Haley, what was that?" Nathan asked. He was still so confused about the whole situation.

"What are you talking about?" She played dumb.

"What was that, that you just did back there when I was talking to Theresa?" He asked once again.

"Um, nothing. I was just tired of Theresa throwing herself at you. After two years you would think that she would get the hint that you're not interested in her. Seriously."

"Haley, you are so lying." Nathan declared.

"What? I am not." She defended and looked at him. "Okay, I am lying. I was just trying to warm up to the role of your psycho girlfriend. Fun, don't you think?" She smiled and started laughing at the look on his face.

"Maybe I never should have said that, huh?"

"Nope. Never. You plotted the idea in my brain and now you're stuck with me being a psycho girlfriend." She said. "Where is everyone?" She asked seeing that their friends weren't at lunch.

"I don't know. So, your my psycho girlfriend now?"

"Yeah, I guess you're stuck with me."

"Well, that kind of sucks. Me and my stupid big mouth." He joked.

"Hey! You're stuck with me and you know you love it." She said sticking her tongue out at him.

Their friends eventually showed up at lunch. Their afternoon classes went by rather quickly. Everyone was focused on the game that was going to happen later that night. The guys were pumped and Brooke was excited to try out the new cheers that the squad had been practicing that week.

The basketball team was on the court warming up for the game and the cheerleaders were on the sidelines stretching, preparing for the routines they would be doing in a couple of minutes once the game started.

In the beginning of the game it was close. If one team scored, the other team would score soon after, but the Raven were determined to win even if Cove City wasn't backing down. At half time the score was 28-24 in favor of the Ravens and then the Ravens' cheerleaders went onto the court to perform their newest routine.

At the end, the Ravens played a good game and ended up winning 60-42. Brooke was satisfied with the way the new cheers had turned out and now they were all on their way to a party, ironically at Theresa's beach house.

Brooke, Haley, and Peyton all walked into the house together. People must have gotten there pretty quickly after the game because the house was already full and people were still arriving.

They walked through the house until Brooke noticed Lucas talking with Nathan, Jake, Tim and some of the other guys on the team. The girls walked over to them and some of the random guys on the team left.

"See, I told you The Tim brings all the ladies near. Where The Tim is, ladies flock to. It's natural for them." Tim said to the guys as Brooke, Haley, and Peyton reached them.

"Tim, go away." Brooke told him after hearing what he had just said.

"Oh, I know, you want to meet me upstairs in ten minutes. See you there. Sorry Lucas." Tim said before running away.

"Wow, Brooke, meeting Tim upstairs?" Haley joked.

"Shut-up, Tutor-girl! It's not my fault he's an idiot." Brooke said.

"Be nice, Brooke." Haley warned. Tim was a little on the dumb side, but the tutor in her hated it when someone pointed it out and made fun of him.

"Fine. Come on, Broody, let's go get a drink." Brooke said to Lucas.

They had been there for a while and Haley was being her regular self and only had a couple of drinks. She knew that if she drank a lot that she would have a killer hangover the next morning and that was something that she really didn't want to put up with. She was such a lightweight.

Everyone was dancing. Brooke and Lucas. Peyton and Jake. Even Haley and Nathan, as friends of course, except everyone around them thought it was because they were together. Haley decided that if she was going to be treated like Nathan's girlfriend she might as well play the part of it and that included dancing. She would have never danced with him before, but since they had became friends she didn't see anything wrong with it.

Her back was to his chest. His hands sat upon her hips as she swayed to the beat of the music. She turned in his arms. Their bodies so close together. Their faces inches apart. They were so close together, they actually did look like a real couple at the moment. They both leaned their heads a little closer together simultaneously. Their lips centimeters away, so close to touching.


	7. Come Clean

**Wow, thanks for all the reviews. Sorry for leaving you with that cliffhanger, but here's the next chapter. Please review and let me know what you think. **

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Their lips were almost touching. They were so close to each other. They were about to kiss and she now knew it was going to happen. She pulled away from him as if his touch had just burned her. As soon as she was out of his grasp she ran out of the room without looking back. She ran out of the back door and down the beach. There were too many thoughts running through her mind at the moment. She couldn't even think clearly. She stopped running and sat down on the sand. She pulled her knees to her chest and hugged her legs, resting her chin on top of her knees. She needed time to process what had almost happened back there, not even two minutes ago.

She pulled away and ran. He was left standing there like an idiot. He looked around the room, no one even seemed to have noticed what had happened between him and Haley just now. He ran a hand over his face and walked out the back door. What the hell had just happened in there? He almost kissed her, that's what. Why the hell would he ever do that? What was going on with him? What the hell was he thinking? He was so confused. Obviously she didn't want to kiss him or else she wouldn't have pulled away and ran like she did. He was so stupid. It sucked that he wasn't even a little bit drunk so that he could blame it on the alcohol, but he was completely sober. He didn't even know if she had been drinking or not. He didn't know anything anymore. Everything was such a mess. He sighed before he walked back into the house and made his way into the kitchen. He needed a drink and he needed one now. Maybe more than one.

She furiously wiped away the tears falling from her eyes with her hands. She didn't even know why she was crying right now or why she was even upset. She just wanted to go home and lay in her bed. She didn't want to be here, but unfortunately she rode here with Brooke and Theresa's beach house was about twenty minutes away from her house, there was no way she could possibly walk home. The tears kept coming and she couldn't stop them. Why was she crying? She felt so stupid. It wasn't like she wanted to kiss him or anything. Right? Everything was so confusing. She needed to find a way to get home because she really couldn't be here anymore.

He was stumbling through the house. He was already so drunk. He didn't know how he got drunk that fast. Wait, yes he did, he just kept downing one cup after the other. This house was suffocating him. He had to get out of there. He filled up his cup again, grabbed a bottle of vodka and went out back to the beach. He stumbled along the sand drinking from his cup. This night couldn't possibly get any worse than it already was. Or at least that was what he thought.

She stood up and wiped her eyes again with the sleeves of her zip-up sweatshirt. She pulled her hood over her head and started walking back towards Theresa's beach house. She didn't know how far away she was because when she was running she hadn't been paying attention to how far she was going. She figured if she went back she could find Brooke and convince her to leave a little early. Even if Brooke was drinking, Haley could drive her car. She had a couple drinks earlier, but that was hours ago.

She was walking down the beach when she noticed someone else sitting on the sand looking out at the ocean. The waves crashing against the shore. She was too far away for her to see who it was. As she got closer she noticed that it was Nathan. She sighed and wondered what he was doing, when she saw a cup in his hand and a bottle full of vodka sitting next to him. She shook her head. He hadn't been drinking earlier that night. She was curious as to how drunk he was and why he had all of a sudden started drinking. She hoped it wasn't because of the incident about twenty minutes ago, but she guessed that it was. What else would have caused this mess? She considered just walking past him and leaving him there to sit by himself. If she was quiet enough he probably wouldn't even notice her walking behind him. Except, then she remembered that he had drove there and she didn't want him to try to drive back home if he was drinking. The last thing she wanted was for Nathan to get into an accident.

She walked over and sat down next to him. He turned his head and saw Haley sitting next to him. "What do you want, Haley?" He asked her. Why was she there? How could she even sit next to him right now? Didn't she know that he was pissed off at her?

"I just want to sit here. Nothing else." She promised him. All she really wanted to do was make sure he wasn't going to get in his car. She needed to get his keys away from him. She just didn't know how she was going to do that.

"Whatevvverrr." He slurred as he poured more vodka into his plastic cup.

"You going to share that or what?" She asked him. She could really use a drink right about now. She wanted to put all of her thoughts and feelings aside right now. She could think about everything later.

Nathan looked at her. He saw that her make-up was a little bit messed up and he wondered if she was crying. He didn't know if he was mad at her or himself, but whatever it was he didn't want to show it. He extended his cup out to her. She took it and said thank you before taking a rather large sip. Then she handed it back to him. "So, you're going to get home how?" She asked him. She decided to get straight to the point. She couldn't drive him home, after her few drinks earlier and now drinking this. She didn't want to risk anything by driving his car. Haley knew that Nathan was in absolutely no condition to drive.

He just dangled his keys in front of him as his answer. She took this opportunity to take his keys from him. He turned to look at her. "You can't drive, Nathan." She explained her actions.

"Beach house." He muttered. The whole point of being out here was to get away from her. It obviously wasn't working.

"Oh." She said and handed him his keys back. At least he knew he couldn't drive.

He tried to stand up to leave, but he stumbled and fell back down onto the sand. Haley had to bit back a laugh when he attempted to stand again and had failed that attempt as well. "Nathan, do you want some help?" She asked him. She figured the least she could do was help him, after all she was the one who ran away from him and not the other way around. She didn't wait for an answer. She stood up and stuck out her hand, waiting for him to take hold of it.

He looked from her to her hand, deciding on whether or not to take her offer of help. Yes, he was mad, but he really did just want to go to his beach house and go to sleep, so he encased her smaller hand in his own larger one and she helped him stand up. After standing, he started to walk in the direction of his beach house, but it was more of stumbling. Haley sighed knowing that she was going to have to help him all the way to his beach house. Where ever his beach house actually was. She had never been there before. When he used to have parties, she didn't go because she couldn't stand being in the same place as him. That was before they became friends though.

She put one of Nathan's arms around her neck and wrapped her arms around his waist to help him walk. "Nathan, come on, you have got to help me out here. Please." She said to him. He was already basically falling asleep and she didn't know where his beach house was. Not to mention that she couldn't help him get there if he wasn't moving at all. It wasn't as if she could pick him up, throw him over her shoulder and walk.

Nathan just nodded his head not really comprehending what she was saying to him as he laid his head on her shoulder.

"Nathan, where is your beach house?" Haley asked him. This was going to be difficult. She was so thankful that she too wasn't drunk or this would be even harder.

"Five." He said.

"Five what, Nathan? Where is your beach house?" She asked him again. She really hoped that they were at least walking in the right direction of his beach house.

"Five away houses more." He tried forming a sentence. His head was on her shoulder and his eyes were starting to close, but she really needed him to stay awake. She guessed that what Nathan was trying to tell her was that his beach house should only be about five more houses away from Theresa's, which was a good thing because she didn't know how much farther she could actually take him.

They finally reached what Haley assumed was Nathan's beach house. She had never been there before so she wasn't really sure if it was the right house or not, but either way it was the house that was five away from Theresa's. She hoped this was the right house. Nathan was practically asleep on her shoulder. "Nathan?" She tried to wake him up. She was exhausted from basically dragging him here because he was so much bigger than she was and he was pretty much dead weight. She just wanted to go home, but she couldn't just leave him outside of this house, especially if she didn't even know if it was his house or not. "Nathan?" She shook him. "Nathan, is this your house?" She asked him when his eyes fluttered open. He nodded his head without looking at the house. She sighed, there was only one way for her to find out.

She retrieved his keys from his sweatshirt pocket. There was like five different keys on the key ring. If this wasn't his house she couldn't be trying a ton of different keys in the lock. She looked at Nathan and knew that he wouldn't be any help to her. She saw one key that was marked with B.H. in black marker and guessed it stood for beach house. She prayed this worked. She stuck the key into the lock and thankfully the door opened. This was Nathan's beach house.

She looked down and noticed Nathan laying on the ground. She sighed. Haley had to figure out a way to get him off the ground, into the house, and up the stairs. This was going to be so much fun. She just wanted to go to sleep. She was so exhausted.

Haley bent down and started to shake Nathan. "Nathan, wake up." No response. "Come on, Nathan. I really need you to get up. Please help me out here and wake up long enough to help me get you up those stairs." She begged. She needed him to be a little bit awake. There was no way she could do this without a little bit of his cooperation.

He opened his eyes and looked at her. "Nathan, come on, I need you to get up." She said to him. He nodded and she started to help him get up. "Stay awake until we get upstairs, Nathan and then you can sleep all you want. I promise." She said to him.

After making it in into the house and to the stairway, it was time for the hard part, actually going up the stairs. Worst case scenario, they both fall down the stairs. She prayed that didn't happen.

"Let's go, Nathan. Come on, up the stairs. Work with me, okay." She kept talking to him, trying to keep him as awake as possible.

They started making their way up the stairs. It was a hard task, but they accomplished it without falling down. She walked Nathan over to one of the doors upstairs. She opened it and saw it was a bathroom, not what she was looking for. Opening the next door she saw what she guessed was his parent's room. The next couple of doors all lead to guest rooms and she was beginning to wonder if Nathan even had a room here. Finally, she opened the last door and knew it was Nathan's room as soon as the door opened. The walls were painted a dark, royal, blue color and the floor was covered with tan carpet. There were basketball posters and framed jerseys hanging all over the walls. In the center of the room was a huge bed with a black comforter and an end table next to it. There was a desk with a computer and shelves filled with trophies. There was a dresser with a television sitting on top. A mini basketball was sitting on the floor and a mini basketball hoop was attached to one of the walls. Typical Nathan.

She dragged Nathan to the bed and he fell down on it, bringing her with him. She was laying there with half of Nathan on top of her. She tried to push him off of her, but it was useless because he wouldn't budge. She was officially stuck. Haley knew there wasn't even any point in trying to wake him up again because his breathing already got heavier and she could tell he was knocked out.

Within minutes Haley's eyes were fluttering closed and she was soon falling asleep. She couldn't help it because she was so tired. It wasn't like Nathan was going to wake up anytime soon anyway so she couldn't really move anyway. She drifted off to sleep.

The sun's rays shone into the room through the window. The light was shining right on his face. He had a killer headache. He could thank the alcohol for that one. He groaned to himself as he got up from his bed and shut the blinds so that the room was dark once again. He needed some more sleep. Closing his eyes he got back into his bed. He laid down when he felt something against his arm. He opened his eyes again and saw he was in his room at his beach house. He turned his head and his eyes almost popped out of his head at what he saw. Haley was laying next to him, in his bed, sleeping. What the hell? Nathan closed his eyes and opened them again thinking that maybe he was only dreaming. He didn't even remember coming here last night and he definitely didn't remember bringing Haley with him. Why the hell was she in his bed at his beach house?

He thought about waking her up so that he could ask her what had happened last night and what she was doing there, but he decided against it. She looked so peaceful and beautiful sleeping. Beautiful? Did he just think that? It was a mistake. It had to be. He didn't think of girls as beautiful. Especially not girls that are named Haley James. This friendship was really taking a toll on him. He shook his head, which was a mistake because his head started pounding again.

He got up and walked into the adjacent bathroom. He opened the medicine cabinet and grabbed the bottle of aspirin. He needed to take something for this headache. It was like an elephant was sitting on his head. After popping an aspirin into his mouth and washing it down with some water from the sink he walked back into his bedroom. He laid back down on his bed and closed his eyes. He really needed some more sleep. Everything else could be settled once he woke up again.

She opened her eyes and looked around the room. This wasn't her room. It wasn't even Brooke's room. Where the hell was she? That was when she remembered taking Nathan home the night before and him falling asleep halfway on top of her. She was in Nathan's bedroom at his beach house. She felt an arm around her and looked down. Nathan's arm was wrapped possessively around her waist. She turned and noticed that she had been curled up next to him. They must have shifted positions during their sleep throughout the night.

She studied his sleeping face. She almost reached out to touch it, but refrained because she didn't want to wake him. She was about to lift his arm off her when his eyes fluttered open. They just laid there staring at each other for a couple of moments before Haley whispered, "Hi." She didn't know how much of last night Nathan remembered.

"Hi." Nathan responded equally as quiet. He wasn't sure what happened last night, but they were both fully clothed so that was a good thing. Normally, he didn't mind hook-ups that he couldn't remember, but this was Haley and that made it a completely different story. The last thing that he remembered was him and Haley almost kissing, her running, and then him getting drunk on the beach.

They both realized they were still curled up next to each other and pulled away to put some distance in between the two of them. Then there was an awkward silence. The kind they used to have. The kind she hated.

Nathan cleared his throat. "So, um, we got here how, last night?" He asked her. He wanted to know what happened and he figured that she probably knew. He didn't remember her being drunk, but then again, he didn't remember too much from the night before.

She sat up on the bed and leaned against the headboard. "Oh, um, well last night after the, you know, incident, I was walking on the beach and I saw you sitting there drinking and I wanted to make sure you weren't going to drive home so I sat down next to you. Then you couldn't stand so, I helped you get up, but then you couldn't walk by yourself either. I helped you walk here. Well, actually you were like halfway asleep so, I was kind of dragging your dead weight here and I didn't even know where here was. You weren't really helping me that much. Then when we finally got here, I had to drag you up the stairs. After checking every door in the hallway for your room, we finally made it here, you collapsed on the bed pinning me down under you. You wouldn't budge. I fell asleep. We woke up and now I'm telling you what happened. The end." Haley explained everything that happened to him.

"Sorry." Nathan apologized. "And thanks. You know, for bringing me here and everything else." He said to her.

Haley nodded. "It's fine. It was no problem. Okay, that's not necessarily true, but I just didn't want you to drive home after you had been drinking and then you couldn't walk. It was fine, really." She said to him.

It was Nathan's turn to nod. He got up off the bed. "Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?" He asked her. He was starving and besides, he felt like he at least owed it to her to be nice after everything she did for him the night before.

"Oh, um, I don't know. I should probably get going home soon." She trailed off. Haley didn't really have to get home. Her parents weren't there anyway. They were off traveling the country in their RV. She just wasn't sure if it would be uncomfortable or not if she stayed. Things were a little awkward between them at the moment.

"Come on, Haley, I owe you." He insisted. On one hand he wanted her to stay, but on the other he wanted her to leave. He didn't know what he wanted anymore.

"Um, okay. So, what are we having?" She accepted. She actually was really hungry.

They started heading down the hall and down the stairs. "Uh, I actually have no idea. Whatever we have in the fridge, I guess." Nathan answered her.

She laughed. "Sounds like a plan."

When they got downstairs Haley went over and sat on top of the counter while Nathan opened the refrigerator to look for something for breakfast.

He turned around to face her. "So, you can take your pick, we have eggs or we have eggs. You can have either one you want." Nathan said to her.

Haley laughed in response and pretended to think carefully about her options. "Hmm, I don't know. This is a really hard decision, but I think I'll have to go with eggs." She joked.

Nathan laughed. "Eggs it is."

"Wait, do you even know how to make eggs?" Haley asked him.

"I'm going to try. How hard can it be?" Nathan answered.

"I can't wait to see this." She said, dangling her legs in the air.

"Very funny." He said. He took out the carton of eggs and put them on the counter next to Haley. He then proceeded to get out a frying pan, a spatula, and some flour.

Haley started laughing and Nathan looked at her confused. "What?" He asked her. He hadn't even done anything yet, what could be so funny?

"Nathan, what are doing with flour?" She asked him.

He looked confused. He looked from the flour back to Haley. "Um, I don't know." He answered her honestly. "My mom used to used it a lot. I think." He added.

She laughed again. "You don't need flour to make eggs, Nathan." She explained to him. "You need eggs to make eggs. You need flour for this." She said as she grabbed a hand full of flour and threw it at Nathan.

His mouth hung open and he wiped the flour off his face with his hand. "You did not just do that." He said to her.

She nodded her head and laughed. "Yeah, I think I just did."

"Well, that sucks for you because now I'm going to have to get you back." Nathan explained to her as he threw flour at her.

She jumped off the counter and ran after Nathan cracked an egg on her. "Nathan!" Haley shrieked. She now had egg dripping down her hair and face.

He smirked at her. "What?" He asked innocently.

That's when the war officially began. Eggs were cracked, flour was thrown, and Haley was chased for the next hour and a half.

Haley was sitting behind one of the counters. She didn't know where Nathan was, but she was out of ammo. "Nathan." She called out, but didn't get an answer. "Nathan." She tried again. "I give up." She said. "I surrender."

Nathan listened. "Is this a real surrender?" He questioned her.

"Yes, I promise." She answered. "I'm getting up from behind the counter now." She announced. She stood up, but Nathan wasn't anywhere in sight.

He waited a couple of minutes before standing. He was on the other side of the kitchen. When she saw him she raised her hands in defeat showing him she was telling the truth. Luckily for her, he was out of ammo too, but she didn't' know that.

He laughed at the sight of her. She was covered in egg and flour. Sometime during their war she had taken her zip-up sweatshirt off and was clad in a lacy white tank top and a pair of jeans. Even covered in food she looked pretty. He cursed to himself. He needed to stop thinking about her that way. He didn't even know when these thoughts had started.

"What are you laughing at?" She asked him.

He laughed even harder. "You." He managed to get out.

"Oh yeah, well you don't look too good yourself right now." She said to him, trying to hold back her own laughter.

"Oh really?" He questioned moving closer to her.

"Really." She confirmed.

"Well that's too bad," He said. "because you actually look really good right about now."

"Yeah, you too." She quietly confessed.

He stopped moving closer and turned around letting out a frustrated sigh. "God, I can't do this with you, Haley." He said to her turning back around to face her.

She looked at him confused.

"We're fighting one day and the next we're not. We're all of a sudden best friends. Then we flirt with other. We almost kiss last night and you run away. Then you're helping me home and sleeping at my house with me. What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know." She said looking at the ground.

"Neither do I." He told her. "What do you want?" He asked.

"I don't know. I'm just really confused right now, especially after what happened last night and just now." She told him honestly. "What do you want?" She asked him.

He ran a hand over his head. "I don't know. I think that maybe I might like you as more than a friend. Everything is happening at once, you know?"

"Yeah, I know." She said. "So, what exactly does this mean?" She asked. She wanted to get everything settled.

"I don't know that either, Haley. What do you want me to say to you?"

"I don't know." She told him. "I don't know." She repeated again, but this time quieter.

"Me either. You should probably go." He said to her. He needed some time to think about this.

"Yeah, okay." She said. She picked up her sweatshirt off the floor. "Um, are you sure you don't want any help cleaning this mess up?" She asked him.

"Don't worry about it." He replied. He actually had forgotten about his kitchen being a mess until she mentioned it.

"Okay, I'll talk to you later, I guess. Bye." She said and ran out the door. She cursed to herself wondering how she was going to get home now. She called Brooke and told her to come pick her up.

Fifteen minutes later Brooke pulled up and Haley got into the car looking like a mess. "Tutor-girl what happened to you?" Brooke asked.

"I don't really want to talk about it right now, Brooke. I promise I'll tell you later, okay. Can you just please just drive me home." Haley answered.

"Sure." Brooke said, sensing that Haley really wasn't in the mood to talk about whatever happened.

The rest of the ride to Haley's house was silent. Brooke wondering what happened to Haley and why she wasn't at home. Haley thinking about what just happened with Nathan and how she felt about it.

They pulled up to Haley's house fifteen minutes later. "Thanks, Brooke. I owe you."

"Hey, what are best friends for, right? So, I'm coming over later with ice cream and you're going to tell me what's going on, but please shower first." Brooke told her.

"Okay, I'll see you later." She said. Haley walked into her house and got a shower. After putting on some clean clothes she got in her own bed, under the covers, and cried. She didn't know why she was crying or what she wanted. She didn't like Nathan, did she? Yes. She was so stupid. Why didn't she let him kiss her last night anyway? She ran away and she knew it was because she was scared.

Nathan cursed silently in his head for being an ass to Haley and telling her to leave like that. She brought him home the night before and he couldn't even have offered to drive her home. He was an ass. There wasn't anything he could do about it now. He surveyed the kitchen and decided he should clean it before he got a shower so that he didn't get covered in egg and flour again. Maybe he should have taken Haley up on that offer of help to clean the kitchen. He absolutely hated cleaning. He never had to clean because his mom always came over to his apartment and cleaned for him when she brought groceries over.

Two hours later, he finally finished cleaning up the kitchen. Before he started cleaning, he seriously considering leaving the mess there for his dad to see. He was glad that his dad bought another house and moved out of the beach house after the divorce because if Haley brought him here last night while his father was here, he'd be getting lectured about it for days to come. The number one thing he would say to Nathan would be, "Why were out drinking instead of practicing for basketball?" Nathan sighed, even thinking about his dad got him aggravated.

He got up and starting walking up the stars. He couldn't wait to take a shower and get all this crap off of him. He smiled a little when he remembered how the whole thing started. He was going to put flour on eggs and Haley made fun of him, throwing flour at him. For revenge, he cracked an egg on her head while she was still sitting on the counter. Her facial expression was so funny after he cracked the egg. He shook his head and started thinking about everything else. He admitted he maybe liked her as more than a friend and he wasn't sure if that was true yet. Everything was really confusing right now. Two weeks ago this never would have happened. Of course being friends with her was better than arguing all of the time, but being friends with her made him see her in a different way. Different ways he liked. He didn't know what was going on, but he did know that he had to apologize to her. Again. He basically kicked her out of the beach house. He needed to think about what he wanted before he went to go see her. This all had to be settled. Besides, she couldn't be mad him, she had to be his fake girlfriend, even if that's not what he wanted.


	8. What Do You Want?

**Thanks for all the reviews. Sorry for the wait. Here's the next chapter. I hope you like it. I liked writing it. Please review. Thanks.**

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Haley laid in her bed, tucked comfortably under her warm, purple comforter. Although she was in her bed, she wasn't asleep. She was just laying there, awake, thinking. She couldn't stop the tears from falling from her eyes. No matter how many times she had tried to stop crying, the tears just kept coming. They wouldn't stop. She had been crying since Brooke had dropped her off at home. On the way to her house she was in too much shock to cry. She wished things had happened differently with Nathan, but they didn't and she couldn't go back in time and change them. She wished she could. She wished that they had never spent so much time hating each other and fighting each other. That they hadn't chose to become friends solely because of some stupid bet that she was still trying to currently figure out. That she wasn't pretending to be his girlfriend. That she had kissed him at the party two nights ago. That when he confronted her, she said something other than 'I don't know'. She didn't know what to do anymore or what she wanted. Haley wasn't sure if she liked Nathan as more than friends or not. If she did, would she actually be willing to try to be something with Nathan. Not even a couple of weeks ago they couldn't bare to be in the same room as each other. Everything happened really fast and no matter what happened Haley was still his fake girlfriend for another month and a half.

She was tired of thinking about this. She didn't want to think about it anymore. Haley closed her eyes and decided that she was just going to lay there until she fell asleep. She just wanted to go to sleep and forget about everything that was going on right now. She drifted off to sleep and all of her thoughts about what was happening with Nathan were gone. For now, at least.

Brooke pulled up into the driveway of her best friends house. She practically lived there anyway. Her parents had never been around, so she spent all of her time at Haley's house. Haley's parents were more like parents to her than her own. Now that Mr. and Mrs. James were traveling around the country in their RV, that left Haley all alone in her house just like Brooke usually was.

She got out of the car, carrying her bag of essentials with her. She was worried about Haley. She thought that things were fine, but then Haley had disappeared from the party the other night without even saying goodbye. Then late this morning Haley called Brooke telling her to come pick her up from Nathan's beach house. Of course Brooke had agreed to go and get her best friend, although she was unsure as to why Haley was at Nathan's beach house at ten o'clock in the morning. When she arrived there, Haley got in the car looking like a disaster. She had egg and flour all over her, but when Brooke asked all Haley said was that she didn't want to talk about it and would tell her later. Brooke could tell by the tone of Haley's voice that she was upset about something and she was determined to find out what it was. So here she was walking into Haley's house carrying a bag filled with ice cream and movies, the official cheering up a best friend kit.

As Brooke walked into Haley's house, she noticed it was really quiet. Maybe she wasn't here because there was nothing that was signaling that anyone was home. The house was so quiet. No sound at all. Checking all the rooms downstairs, she saw that Haley was not down there. She headed up the stairs towards Haley's bedroom. Brooke slowly opened the door to Haley's room. As the door opened, she saw Haley curled up underneath of her covers, laying in the middle of her queen sized bed. She smiled slightly at the sight and walked over to the bed. She wondered how long Haley had been sleeping for. When she reached the bed she noticed that Haley's pillowcase had wet spots on it. Her hair wasn't wet and she wasn't drooling. Had she been crying? Brooke wondered what happened that made Haley cry herself to sleep in the middle of the day. Haley was tough. She was a fighter. She didn't cry a lot, but when she did it was heartbreaking. Haley always tried not to cry and hold back all of her tears. Brooke never really understood why Haley would never just let herself cry and let it all out. Haley hated being vulnerable and she believed that if she cried she would be.

Brooke decided on letting Haley sleep some more figuring that she was upset about something and just wanted to get away from it all. She went back down the stairs and stuck the ice cream that she had brought over in the freezer. She sat down on the couch and turned on the tv waiting for Haley to wake up.

Nathan paced back and forth in his room. He was still at his beach house. After cleaning up the mess he had made with Haley earlier that morning he had gotten a shower and now he was pacing in his room, thinking. The usually cocky and confident seventeen year old was so confused and unsure of what was going on. Hours ago, earlier that day, he had pretty much admitted that he like Haley, not only did her admit it, but he had admitted it to her. He didn't mean to say it, but he just blurted it out and couldn't stop himself from talking. He didn't know when or how this had happened, but it happened. He was coming to terms with him realizing that he liked Haley James. Except, now she was probably pissed off at him again because he was an ass again. He practically kicked her out of the beach house without offering her a ride back home. After all she did for him when he got wasted at the party, he repaid her by being an ass to her. He wouldn't really be surprised if she didn't want to talk to him at all anymore, it wasn't like that would stop him.

Things would be a hell of a lot easier if Haley wasn't already supposed to be his girlfriend. This bet was making things more complicated then would have been. Why had he ever agreed to this? To prove what exactly? He wished he would have turned it down, but he doesn't back down from bets and he wasn't going to back out now.

He knew he had to go see Haley and talk to her. He knew he had to apologize. Again. He was always screwing up. No matter what he did he always messed things up. He picked up his cell phone and scrolled through the contacts list. He found Haley's name, but he didn't press talk. He wasn't sure what he would say to her once he talked to her. All he knew was that he definitely had to say that he was sorry and he really was.

He finally pressed talk and put his phone to his ear. It was ringing, but she wasn't answering. He wondered if she was ignoring it on purpose because she knew it was him. He hoped not. "Hey, it's Haley. Leave me a message." Her voice came on the other line. He got her voice mail. Voice mail. Nathan hated voice mail. He thought it was stupid. He snapped his phone shut and shoved it into his pocket.

He made his way down the stairs of his beach house and grabbed his keys off of the table near the front door. Haley must have put them there last night. After locking the door, he walked down a couple of houses and found his car parked on the side of the street near Theresa's beach house.

Haley woke up in her room and looked around. Glancing at her clock, she saw that it was four o'clock in the afternoon. She closed her eyes and stretched her arms out, wondering why she had been sleeping in the middle of the afternoon. Opening her eyes, she remembered everything that had happened the night before and that morning. She sighed and threw the covers off her body. She got out of her bed and walked downstairs to find her best friend laying on her couch watching tv. "Hey Brooke, what are you doing?"

Brooke sat up and made room for Haley to sit down on the couch. "Tutor-girl! It was about time you woke up. I came over like two hours ago. There's ice cream in the freezer." Brooke informed Haley.

"I knew you were my best friend for a reason." Haley joked. "Thanks Brooke. You know, for bringing me ice cream and coming to get me this morning and not making me talk about it earlier." Haley quietly spoke.

"Aw, Tutor-girl! I would do anything for you. You're my best friend." She moved over and gave Haley a hug. "So, do you want to talk about it now?" Brooke carefully asked. She didn't want to force Haley into talking about whatever it was that was wrong.

"Okay, so you know that Nathan and I became friends like a week ago." Brooke nodded and Haley continued. "So, two nights ago at the party that we all went to after the game you were dancing with Lucas and Peyton was dancing with Jake so me and Nathan started dancing together. We were dancing and my back was to him. When I turned around we were so close to each other and our heads just kept moving closer and I thought he was going to kiss me so I ran away down to the beach."

"What!? You guys almost kissed? How did I not know? Why did you run away?" Brooke interrupted.

"Because I was scared." Haley quietly confessed. "I didn't know what I wanted at the time. I still don't think I know."

"Oh, Hales. I knew you and Nathan being friends was trouble. Although, I so did think that maybe there was some kind of deeper vibe going on with you and Nathan. I should have made a bet. I so would have won. Anyway, I'm getting off topic. So, what happened next?" Brooke went on.

"Uh, when I was walking back to Theresa's house to find you to see if we could leave early, I saw Nathan sitting on the beach drinking and I wanted to make sure that he wasn't planning on driving home. The he couldn't walk right so I had to help him to his beach house and then he like fell asleep on top of me and when we woke up he offered breakfast. We got into a flour and egg fight. Nathan kind of confessed that he liked me, but I'm not sure if that was what he meant or what he wanted to say. Then he pretty much kicked me out of his beach house and I called you because I didn't know how else to get home." Haley quickly finished. She didn't want to talk about this. All she wanted to do was eat her ice cream and go back to sleep.

Brooke looked at Haley before getting off the couch and grabbing the container of ice cream and two spoons. Sitting back down on the couch she passed Haley a spoon and opened the ice cream so they two of them could start devouring it while Haley ranted and vented.

"After all I did for him, helping him home while he was pretty much asleep on my shoulder. Making sure he didn't drink and drive. Everything. He kicked me out of his beach house and didn't even ask if I wanted a ride home. Did he really expect me to walk twenty minutes away to my house? I don't think so. I want to be so mad at him and so angry, but for some reason I'm just not. Brooke, I think that maybe I like Nathan." She looked at Brooke and waited for her to say something.

"Well, duh. Did you not hear what I was saying about five minutes ago about you and Nathan having a deeper vibe? Look, Haley, I don't really know what to tell you. I usually have pretty good advice, but this whole fake relationship and real friendship slash kind of like each other as more than friends thing you've got going on is really confusing and so complicated. All I can tell you is to really think about what you want and just see what happens. Go with the flow I guess." Brooke shared her opinions, knowing that Haley wanted a little bit of insight from someone who wasn't in the situation.

"Maybe you're right. Maybe I should just see what will happen next and stop stressing about everything." Haley agreed. "Thanks Brooke."

After going to get his car he drove to the Rivercourt. Nathan grabbed the basketball out of the back seat of his car and walked over to stand in the middle of the court. He liked coming here to clear his mind. Whenever he just needed to be alone and think about things, basketball always helped him do that, whether it was in a gym or just a regular court like this one. He threw the ball and watched as it effortlessly went through the net. A perfect shot. He stayed at the court for another hour or so just shooting the ball and wasting time, trying to put off talking to Haley. He had tried calling her again, but she still didn't answer. He still was unsure of what to say once he did talk to her. An hour later he was tossing the basketball into the back seat of his car where he found it and was driving away from the Rivercourt.

Pulling up to the house, he noticed Brooke's car was parked in the driveway. He debated on whether or not he should still try to talk to her. He really didn't want to have this next conversation in front of an audience and that included Brooke. He was considering driving away and saving the confrontation for later.

The front door opened and Brooke stepped out. Haley stood in the doorway telling her friend goodbye. She hadn't noticed he was there yet. Brooke leaned forward to give Haley a hug. That was when Haley looked forward and noticed his black car parked in the street in front of her house. Their eyes met for a brief moment before she looked away. She wondered what he was doing there. Brooke and Haley pulled away from each other and Haley watched from her spot at the door as Brooke got into her car and pulled out of the driveway. He wondered if Brooke noticed he was here or not.

He looked back at Haley and she looked at him for a second before turning around and shutting the door behind her. He groaned out loud and banged his fist on the steering wheel. He had never had any of these problems with girls before. Not before Haley. Leave it up to Haley James to be the first girl that Nathan actually had problems with. She was the only one who could get under his skin the way she did. He pulled his keys out of the ignition and stepped out of the car and slammed the door shut. He was trying to get all of his anger and frustration out before he walked up to that front door.

Nathan took a deep breath before walking up the driveway and to the front door. He knocked and waited for an answer. She didn't open the door so he knocked again. He knew that she knew it was him. She has seen him there so she had to know. Finally, the door swung open and Haley appeared standing in the doorway with her arms crossed against her chest. "What do you want, Nathan?" She asked him. She had no clue what he was doing here.

"Can I come in?" He asked, not wanting to push things too far, but this had to be done.

"No. Now, what do you want, Nathan?" She asked again.

"Haley, can I please come in. I want to talk to you. Please." He pleaded and explained his reasoning for him being there.

She looked at him and saw that he really did want to talk with her. She sighed and stepped out of the way, allowing him to walk into the house. She shut the door behind him and and led him into the living room where she sat down on the couch waiting for him to speak. He followed her into the living room and sat down with her.

He cleared his throat. "Haley, I'm sorry." He said and looked at her, but she had a blank expression on her face. "For everything." Nathan added.

Haley blinked at him a few times before finally speaking. "What are you sorry for Nathan? Are you sorry for getting drunk two nights ago and me taking care of you, or are you sorry that we fell asleep at your beach house together and you offered me breakfast, but then kicked me out of the house without even caring how I was going to get home? Did you even think about me having to walk twenty minutes to get here? Well, I didn't. Brooke came and got me because she is a real friend. She doesn't hurt me and make me cry. And guess what, I don't cry Nathan. I hate crying, but you made me cry two days in a row. Congratulations." Haley spoke harshly towards him.

Nathan winced at what Haley was saying to him. He really made her cry two days in a row? He felt like crap. He was such a jerk and an ass. He wished everything with them was easier, but it wasn't. "Haley, I am so sorry. Please-"

Haley cut him off. "Please what, Nathan? What? What the hell do you want from me?" She said while holding back the tears that threatened to fall from her eyes. He was the only one she knew that made her get this emotional, whether it was sad or mad or anything. She refused to cry. Not in front of him. She didn't want him to see her cry.

"Look, I was an ass. I am an ass, but I'm sorry and I want you to try and give me another chance. I like you Haley. Us becoming friends has made me see you differently. A difference that I like. I don't why I like you and I don't when this happened, but it did and there isn't anything I can do about it. If you think about it I think there has always been something more there we were just too busy trying to fight each other to realize it."

"Nathan, don't. Haley begged. "Please, just stop."

"What?" He asked.

"I just...Nathan, I don't know if I can handle hearing this right now." Haley explained.

"Haley-"

"Nathan, please go. I just, I need some time to think about all of this and process it. Give me some time." Haley said to him.

Nathan ran a hand over his head. He looked at her. This wasn't going how he wished it was. He had planned this out a lot better in his head. He didn't want to leave, but he knew that he shouldn't push her into anything because it would only make things worse. They had school tomorrow and it would be back to Haley being his girlfriend as far as the rest of the student body knew. He looked at her and nodded his, signaling he agreed that he would leave.

Haley was thankful that he had agreed to leave. She wasn't sure if she wanted him to or not, but she knew that she needed some time to herself right now to think about everything. She just needed to clear her mind and follow Brooke's advice, she needed to figure out what it is that she wanted.

They got up off the couch and Haley walked Nathan over to the front door. She opened the door to let him out. Before stepping outside he grabbed her waist and pulled her into him, crashing his lips onto hers.


	9. Wanting You

**Hey everyone. Thanks for all the reviews! They were great! Sorry for the wait. I was busy with school and field hockey. Plus, I couldn't figure out how I wanted to write this chapter. I was stuck on some parts for a while, but I feel like it's finally good enough. I hope you like it and please review!**

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_The party was crowded and it was like every other time that he was there. It wasn't anything new. People were everywhere. The music was loud. Then there was the alcohol and sex. It was all the same and the routine was old. He needed something new. He just didn't know what it would be yet. He wanted something to make the night more interesting, and he didn't mean hooking up with some random girl that he didn't even know. That wasn't something new. Not new at all. In fact, that happened at most of these parties. _

_He was leaning against one of the walls, filled plastic cup in hand, watching everyone in the room around him. Just standing by and watching it all take place. He felt someone come over and stand next to him. He glanced over to the side and saw his best friend standing there. _

"_Yo, Nate. What'cha doing over here? The ladies aren't feeling The Nate Man tonight? Cause they are all over The Tim." Tim spoke to Nathan._

_Nathan rolled his eyes at Tim. He was always saying stupid things like that. Nathan sometimes wondered if Tim actually knew what he was really saying half of the time. "Tim just say 'hey'." Nathan said. "No, this party sucks. All the parties are the same. There's never anything new anymore. Nothing exciting. It's the same old boring routine." Nathan said to Tim, not even knowing if Tim would really understand what he was trying to say or not._

"_Huh? There's girls everywhere, dude. How does this suck?" Tim asked. He didn't know how Nathan could think a place with so many girls could be boring. Did he hit his head or something? _

"_So, I probably had them all anyway." Nathan said, his cocky attitude making an appearance to show off that he was the best in front of his friend. "Even if I didn't, it's not like there's even a challenge. It's so easy that it isn't even fun." Nathan tried to explain._

"_Dude, there's some girls that don't want the The Nate Man." Tim said._

"_Tim, stop saying 'The Nate Man'. And what girl wouldn't me?" Nathan asked, actually intrigued at what Tim was saying to him. Tim was out of his mind if he thought there wasn't any girl that Nathan couldn't get. Didn't Tim realize who his best friend was? All of the girls wanted Nathan and he gladly accepted that._

"_There's some girl that I bet you can't get." Tim told him. _

_Nathan raised an eyebrow at Tim. "You want to bet on that?" Nathan asked._

"_That's what I said. I bet you that I can find a girl that doesn't want you, Nate, man." Tim answered._

"_Name the bet and the girl." Nathan said. Finally, his something new and interesting was happening. Who would have thought that Tim could actually have some good ideas. _

They got up off the couch and Haley walked Nathan over to the front door. She opened the door to let him out. Before stepping outside he grabbed her waist and pulled her into him, crashing his lips onto hers.

Haley was so completely shocked that she couldn't even respond to his kiss. A few seconds later, she realized what was happening and began to kiss Nathan back. She reached her arms up and held Nathan's shoulders, trying to bring him down closer to her because of their height difference. She wasn't sure if they should be kissing each other now with everything so up in the air and confusing, but she couldn't seem to pull herself away from him.

Their lips were fused together in the kiss and neither could seem to pull away, not that they really wanted to anyway. Haley felt Nathan swipe his tongue across her lower lip asking for access to her mouth. She parted her lips allowing his tongue to enter her mouth. His tongue moved into her mouth, roaming the unexplored area. She moved her hands from off of his shoulders and reached up to wrap around his neck, pulling him closer to her. His hands, resting on her hips, pulled her closer to him. They were so lost in each other.

They pulled away from each other simultaneously, gasping for air, needing oxygen to fill their lungs. Their forehead were rested against the other's. Haley was staring into his pretty blue eyes. Nathan was staring into her deep chocolate brown eyes. Both caught up in what just took place. Neither knowing what to say to the other. Both afraid of saying something to ruin everything.

They both backed up a few steps, separating themselves from each other. They stood there unsure of what to do next. One minute Haley was telling Nathan leave and the next they are kissing each other. Haley was still so surprised that he had kissed her. She had definitely not been expecting that from him. It was so unexpected and spontaneous. She wondered if she should just ask the question that was running through her mind. The question she had been trying to answer, but isn't able to answer alone. She needed to talk to him if she wanted her question answered, but for some reason she couldn't bring herself to open her mouth and speak. It was then that she realized her lips were tingling and she resisted from bringing her hand up to her mouth to touch her lips. She looked up at Nathan and saw he was staring at her. Haley wondered what he was thinking. There wasn't any way for her tell what was going through his mind.

She pushed a few stray strands of hair behind her ear and looked at him while deciding if she should just come right out and say what she wanted to.

"I guess I should go." Nathan stated. He didn't want to stand there in that awkward silence. He thought that maybe she didn't want him to kiss her and that's why she was just standing there, but then again if she didn't want the kiss then why did she kiss him back?

Haley realized Nathan was going to leave. She couldn't believe she had just been standing there. She didn't want to know what he thought of her now. "Wait, Nathan." Haley spoke up. She didn't want him to leave yet. It was amazing how not even ten minutes ago she was telling him that she needed to think about everything and that he needed to leave, yet now here she was ten minutes later not wanting him to leave.

Nathan looked at Haley. He was surprised when he had heard Haley telling him to wait and not to leave yet. She stood there looking at him and he stared back, silently waiting and urging her to continue saying whatever it was that she was going to say to him.

Haley took a deep breath in and then blew out a large breath as she exhaled. She sat on the floor, putting her back against the wall, pulling her legs to her chest and patted the spot next to her, letting him know that she wanted him to sit down on the floor next to her.

Nathan saw Haley sit down on the carpeted floor and motion for him to sit down next to her. He sat down next to her, stretching his legs straight out in front of him and turned his head sideways to face her, but she wouldn't look at him. She was starting straight. Not looking at anything but the wall that was across the room from them. He turned his head and faced forward, waiting for her to say something.

Still looking straight ahead in front of her, Haley began to speak, knowing that Nathan was waiting for her to say something, anything. "So, um, well I guess what I really want to know is, what did that kiss mean? What was that, Nathan?" She asked him quietly. She hadn't planned on asking him that way, but she wasn't really sure how else to put.

Nathan turned his head so he was facing her. "Haley." He said so that she would look at him. Haley turned to face Nathan and looked at him. "I like you." He stated simply. There wasn't any other way to put it. "I don't know when this happened. And I definitely don't know how it happened, but it did. I mean it seems like one day we hate each other and then next I'm kissing you, even though there was some stuff in between, but it happened." He continued. "So, there isn't any other way for me to say it, I like you." He finished while staring at her.

Haley blinked her eyes. She hadn't been expecting him to say that to her. Yes, he had told her that he liked her before, but she wasn't actually sure what he meant by that. She thought that maybe he just liked her as friends, then she thought that maybe he was just telling her, but didn't want to do anything about it because he didn't really want anything to happen with her. She closed her eyes and whispered, "I like you too."

"Do you still need to think?" Nathan asked her. He wasn't sure what was going on in her head.

Haley shook her head and opened her eyes. "No. I don't think so, and for once I'm okay with not knowing what is going to happen or what could happen. I think that you make let myself just do things without thinking every detail out in my head first." She told him.

"Good." He said and leaned his head closer to hers, capturing her lips in a short, yet soft kiss.

After breaking away, Haley gave him a small smile. "So, what exactly does this mean now?" She asked him, biting down on her bottom lip, awaiting his answer.

"This means I want you to go on a date with me. A real one. Not like the fake one we went to at the party before." Nathan said to her. "What do you say, will you go on a date with me, Haley James?" He asked her.

"Wow, I'm so flattered that I don't know what to say. I guess I can be seen with you in public long enough to go on a date with you." Haley joked. "Yes, I will go on a date with you Nathan Scott." She smiled up at him. Even sitting down she still had to look up at him.

"That's good because I don't think my ego would have been able to handle it if you had said no." Nathan smirked at her. She always told him that he had an over-sized ego. She used to always say that she didn't think that it was possible for anyone to be that cocky and self-assured. "Hey Haley," Nathan began. "do you want to be girlfriend?" He asked her.

This whole process was knew to him. Nathan never had to do anything like this before. He usually would just hook-up with what ever girl he wanted, but he never took her out or actually liked her this much before. Most of the time that was the only time that he saw the girl. Sometimes he would be with them again at another party, but he was mostly a no strings attached kind of guy. He never wanted just one girl when he could have any girl he wanted, but Haley was different. She made him feel different. Things he didn't know that he could feel. If someone would have told him that he would actually want a real girlfriend and have a real relationship with her, he would have told them they were crazy. Especially, if they had told him that, that girl would be none other than Haley James.

Haley let out a deep breath and turned her head to look back at the wall. "Nathan, I like you, I really do, but I don't know if I can be your girlfriend right now. I mean seriously, Nathan, you don't exactly have the greatest record when it comes to girls. How am I supposed to be your girlfriend when you are the guy who has always been with a different girl." She quietly spoke. She felt so bad for having to say that to him, but she needed him to know where she was coming from and how she was thinking.

"Because none of those girls ever made me feel anything. Why be with them if I don't want them. Isn't that just a waste of mine and her time? Wouldn't I just be leading the girl on?" He asked her. "Haley, just give me a chance because no other girl that I've been with has actually made me want to be with them for real and you do that." He said to her.

Haley thought about what Nathan said. She looked up at him and bit on her bottom lip, contemplating what to do. He could tell she was thinking. She gave him a small nod. "I'll give you a chance. Prove me wrong, Nathan, please." She said to him.

"So you'll be my girlfriend?" Nathan asked hopefully asked her. He still couldn't believe that he was asking Haley James to be his girlfriend.

Haley smiled at him and nodded. "Yes." She said and started giggling. "I can't believe I'm dating you." She told him. "Who would've ever thought that we would have got together?" She asked him.

"I know what you mean." He said taking her hand and getting up, pulling her up along with him.

He pulled her into the living room and turned the television on before laying down on the couch, pulling her on top of him. Nathan grabbed the remote and changed the channel. Within seconds a basketball game was up on the screen. He looked down at Haley to see her smiling at him. He smiled back.

Two weeks ago, he never would have thought that he would be in the James' living room, laying on the couch with Haley, who just so happened to now be his girlfriend. Things were definitely changing. And so far, it was for the good.

Haley looked at him before whispering, "I don't think I ever actually hated you."

"I don't think I ever actually hated you either." He admitted to her. He was initially surprised at hearing those words come out of her mouth. Surprised, but happy.

Haley reached up and kissed him. "Can I ask you something?" She said quietly.

Nathan nodded, wondering what she had to ask him.

"Why were you always so mean to me then?" She asked, barely audible, afraid of what his answer might actually be.

Nathan almost couldn't hear what she had asked him due to the basketball game that he had playing on the television. "The truth?" He asked her and she nodded her head against his chest, she didn't want to look at him in case she didn't want to hear what he was about to say. "I really don't know. When we first met I was an even bigger ass and I was definitely more cocky. I didn't care about anyone except myself. I guess that maybe I thought that you thought that you were better than everyone because you were basically perfect. I put my walls up and I never took them down. So, I guess when you didn't take my crap and bitched back at me, I just fought back with you and we just didn't stop. I don't really know, Haley, but I hope that helps and I am sorry about it." Nathan finished.

Once again, Haley was surprised. She looked up at him and nodded her head. "I'm sorry too, but we can't change it so let's forget about it and watch these guys throw their free shots."

Nathan started laughing. "Free throws, Hales. They're called throws, not shots." He informed her.

"Whatever." She said and smiled up at him before turning her head to watch the basketball game that she wasn't even interested in. Truthfully, she wasn't even paying attention to the game.

Haley could not believe that she was Nathan Scott's girlfriend. His real one, at that. She wondered if this counted as her two months as his fake girlfriend too. That would be easy. When she was saying goodbye to Brooke and saw him parked outside her house, she was so mad at him and she didn't even want to talk to him, but now she was laying on the couch with him as his girlfriends. Some things really do happen fast. She was happy though. Her life was changing and the biggest change right now was Nathan. From fighting, to friends, to kissing, and now dating. She was still surprised that this all happened. Haley wondered what her friends would think of them dating for real instead of them fake dating. She still had yet to remember what the bet was that night that had stuck her with Nathan and who it was that came up with the idea, but right now she wished she did so that she could thank them because now her and Nathan were together. Things were really good right now and she couldn't be happier. She closed her eyes and fell asleep on Nathan on the couch in her living room, the basketball game still playing on the television screen. She hoped things stayed this good.

Nathan couldn't' believe that Haley was actually his girlfriend. He was happy that she agreed to give him a chance. He knew that he didn't have a good record with sticking to one girl, but Haley was different and he was going to prove it to her that he wanted to be with her.

He still had a little bit of a guilty feeling in the pit of his stomach though. He kept thinking about the bet from the party. Haley actually dating him hadn't been about that though. He really did like her. He wasn't sure what to do about it, but right now he knew that he was going to leave it alone and try to forget about it.

Nathan could hear Haley's breath even out and looked down to see her eyes closed. He smiled at her and turned back to watching the game. Except he couldn't get the bet off his mind.


	10. One Month Down

**I'm so sorry it took this long to update, but with school and field hockey it's hard. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the previous chapter. I hope you like this one. Please review and let me know what you think. I'll try to update as soon as possible. **

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It had been two full weeks since Nathan and Haley had actually gotten together. Only Brooke, Lucas, Peyton, and Jake knew that they hadn't been really together before, so to say that they were utterly shocked was an immense understatement. Brooke had flipped when she heard the news. Not because it was such bad thing that Nathan and Haley together, it was just that she was so surprised. Brooke loved playing matchmaker, she had always thought that there was some sort of deeper connection between the two other than their constant arguing, but every time that she would bring it up Haley would dismiss the idea and tell Brooke that she was crazy. Not to mention Lucas' reaction was priceless. He almost fell out of his chair. Never would he have thought of his best friend and brother together after all these years. He couldn't believe it. Actually, after two weeks he was still getting used to the idea.

One month down. One month to go. It had been a month since the beginning of the bet and two of those weeks had been real. Not that anyone talked about it anyway. It seemed as if everyone forgot all about it. Brooke, Peyton, Lucas, and Jake were the only ones who knew it wasn't real in the beginning and Tim was the only one who knew it was a bet, so to the rest of the student body at Tree Hill High School, Nathan and Haley dating was old news. No one talked about it anymore because they had become familiar with seeing them together. Although, some students still couldn't get over the shock that 'The' Nathan Scott was dating Haley James.

Today was the last day of school before it was closed for the break over the Thanksgiving holiday season. The school day was over and there was no basketball or cheerleading practices or tutoring sessions occurring today. Nathan had promised Haley a ride home. Haley was walking out of the school's double doors in search of her lovely boyfriend. She spotted him sitting alone at one of the tables in the quad. She guessed he was waiting for her.

Haley walked up behind Nathan and covered his eyes with her hands and bent her head down to whisper in his ear. "Guess who." She whispered before letting out a small giggle.

Nathan smiled and took her hands off of his eyes. "Hey, when did you get here?" He turned and asked her.

"Just now. Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I've been waiting forever." Nathan exaggerated. "And here I thought you said I was the slow poke. Guess you were wrong." He smirked, recalling the time she had called him slow because she was at the Tutoring Center before he was.

Haley laughed. "Shut up. Stop making fun of me." She fake pouted.

"I'm not making fun." He laughed. "But if I remember correctly, you haven't properly greeted me yet." It was now Nathan's turn to fake pout.

"And what would be the proper way to greet you?" She asked him.

Nathan pointed to his lips. "A kiss." He smirked.

Haley smiled. "I guess I can spare a kiss for you." She said before quickly pecking at his lips.

He frowned and furrowed his eyebrows, creating wrinkles in his forehead. "That wasn't a real kiss." Nathan complained.

"Fine. I guess you can get a better kiss than that." She sighed and playfully rolled her eyes before leaning in closer to Nathan to give him a soft kiss. Haley broke the kiss and pulled away. "Better?" She asked.

Nathan nodded signaling that he was satisfied. "Much."

"Great. So, now you can bring me home. Lets go." She said to him before turning away and walking towards the direction of the spot where Nathan's car was always parked.

It was now the first day that school was out for five days for Thanksgiving break. Nathan was currently at the River Court. He had a run in with his dad just before and there was a huge blowout between the two as there always was. Of course, it was about basketball as usual. And even though their argument was about basketball it still helped Nathan relax and calm down to shoot a couple of baskets by himself at the River Court to clear his mind and not let himself think about his horrific father.

_It was eight-thirty in the morning and Nathan had been asleep in his apartment when a loud banging noise jolted him awake. He realized someone was at his front door so he decided to ignore it at first. Whoever it was could come back later when it wasn't so early in the morning and when he wasn't trying to sleep. Except the loud obsessive banging was only increasing in the amount of noise was becoming more rapid. Nathan groaned and got up from his bed, already highly disliking whoever it was that was bothering him in the early morning when there was no school. Why weren't they asleep either? This person must be crazy._

_Nathan opened the door only to see the face of his not so lovely father. Well, he got the highly disliking the person on the other side of the door and the person being crazy parts right. As if on instinct, Nathan started closing the door, but his father's hand stopped it, keeping it open. Nathan sighed heavily. "What do you want, Dad?" He asked the one man that he could not stand._

_Dan smirked. "Nathan, how nice of you to invite me." He answered his son sarcastically._

_Nathan shook his head. "You're not invited. Now, what do you want? It's eight-thirty in the morning."_

"_That's why I'm here." Dan announced and Nathan turned confused. What did that mean? "It's eight-thirty in the morning and where are you? Sleeping? That's unacceptable, son. You should be out on a five mile run by this time of the morning. Especially considering that there is no school." Dan elaborated._

_Nathan groaned and rolled his eyes. He should have known his father was here to tell him that he should be working on basketball. It was always basketball all of the time. Twenty-four/seven. It was like he wasn't even human. He was some sort of ongoing basketball machine._

"_Dad-" Nathan began, but was cut off._

"_No, Nathan. Don't you understand that you have to train hard to play hard? Don't you want scouts to notice you, Nathan? Because if you're just going to sleep your days away then you should just quit the team now before someone out-shines you. Especially if the person who is going to do it is going to be Lucas. You need to step it up, son. Do you not want to win the state championships this year? And what about next year? It will be your senior year. Are you going to slack off this much next year too? I thought I raised to understand the importance of practice and training. Do you not want to play college basketball at Duke. And what about getting drafted into the NBA? Tell me, Nathan because I would really like to know how you plan on achieving all of that by slacking off and sleeping. What about all of the hard work we've done to get to this point. Are you going to throw all of that away?" Dan criticized._

"_Stop it, Dad." Nathan growled. His father was such a pain in the ass. "Stop telling me what I need to do and when I should do it. I can handle it myself. I don't need you telling me what to do and I definitely don't want you to. Just shut up because we haven't worked hard for anything. I worked hard. Not you. Not me and you. Just me." Nathan argued. "It's time for you to leave now." He ordered before succeeding in shutting the door._

"Yo Nate!" Tim called out. _When did he get here? _Nathan thought. Tim always had a way of just showing up out of the blue and right now Nathan was not in the mood to talk to anyone, especially if Tim was going to say stupid things like always.

"What Tim?" He asked.

"You got a month left. Think you're gonna win?" Tim asked with a dumb smile on his face.

"What?" Nathan turned to face his friend.

"The bet. You think you can win?" Tim asked again. Crap. Nathan hadn't even thought about that for awhile now.

"Yeah. I'm leaving now." Nathan had to get away. He couldn't be thinking about this right now.

"Bye Nate." A clueless Tim called out as Nathan stalked over to his Mustang and sped off.

Nathan was just sitting somewhere in his car. There was nowhere to go where nobody would find him. Either purposely or accidentally. Either way he didn't want to be found because he wasn't in the mood to be around anyone right now. His cell phone started ringing. He looked down at the caller id. _Luke._ Ignore. He didn't know what Lucas wanted, but right now he didn't really care. A few minutes later his phone started ringing again. _Hales_. He pressed ignore and decided to just go back to his apartment. There was no point in him just sitting somewhere in his car. Besides if someone came over he could always just not answer the door. What a crappy first day of break he was having.

Brooke and Haley were watching a movie in Brooke's home movie theater. Only one of the perks of the Davis house. Supposedly, Brooke's absentee parents figured that they would give her whatever she wanted, or whatever they thought she wanted that is, to make up for them never being there. After the movie was over Lucas had called Brooke and they made plans to go out.

Instead of going home Haley figured that she would call Nathan and see what he was doing, but he didn't answer his cell phone. She wondered if he was home so she decided to stop by his apartment. Haley knocked on the door and patiently waited for her boyfriend to answer. But he never did. That was odd. Haley tried opening the door to see if it was locked, but it wasn't. He was definitely home if the door wasn't locked. She wondered why he didn't answer the door.

"Nathan." Haley called out. No answer. He wasn't anywhere to be seen so she walked to in the one bedroom apartment and shut the door behind her. She tossed her purse onto the couch and walked down the short hallway and saw his bedroom door shut. She lightly knocked on the door. She could hear rap music playing from his CD player. Haley knocked again, this time with more force and the music stopped. Haley pushed the door open and revealed Nathan laying on his bed. She walked over and sat down.

"Hi. I knocked, but you didn't answer and the door was unlocked so I came in." She explained. Nathan nodded, but he barely acknowledged her presence. "I was at Brooke's house and then her Lucas made plans so I came over here. I called you, but you didn't answer." Haley kept talking.

"My phone must've been off." He lied. He didn't want to tell her that he had purposely ignored her phone call.

"Oh." She said quietly. "So, do you want to do something?" She asked hopefully.

"Not really." He answered.

Haley frowned. What was his problem? He was being weird. "Okay, so what are you going to do?" She inquired.

Nathan shrugged. "Just lay here, I guess."

"Nathan, what's wrong?" She asked. She knew that something was bothering him, but she couldn't think of anything that would be bugging him.

"Nothing Haley." Nathan sighed. He didn't want to talk about this. Especially, not with her, not now. She wouldn't understand. Haley grew up in a huge family with tons of brothers and sisters and caring and loving parents. She wouldn't know anything about his father being a selfish, cold hearted man, who only cared about getting into the NBA through Nathan because he blew out his knee in his first year of college. He needed her to leave before he blabbed everything about the 'father-son' relationship he had with his father, including their earlier run-in. In every way he looked at it, that would not have a good outcome.

"Nathan, what's the matter? Please tell me." Haley pleaded. She didn't know what was wrong with him, but she wished that he would at least talk to her and let her know what was going on.

"Haley, it's nothing." Nathan said calmly again, hoping that she would believe him and drop it.

"It isn't nothing. I know something is wrong. Why won't just tell me?" Haley pressed on, searching for some kind of answer.

Nathan sat up on his bed. "I said it was nothing, alright." He practically growled and Haley visibly flinched from the tone of his voice. "Just go, okay?" He said softer, avoiding eye contact with her.

Haley pulled her bottom lip in between her teeth and slightly nodded her head. She knew it was partly her fault for trying to force him to tell her what was wrong with him, but she couldn't except be upset about him being mean and then asking her to leave.

She leaned over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Sorry." She whispered so softly it was almost barely audible, but Nathan heard it and he instantly felt terrible for snapping at her like he just did.

Nathan gently grabbed her wrist as she began to get up and leave. Haley turned to look at him and he pulled her back down to sit on the bed again. "Me too." He told her and she nodded once again. Nathan sighed. "Haley, I am sorry."

"I know. I just, well it's just that-, why can't you just tell me what's wrong? I just want to know. Maybe help you feel better?" Haley spoke quietly. She just wanted to help him. Was that such a bad thing?

"It's fine. I promise. I just don't want to talk about it, okay?" He asked even though it was more of a statement. He watched her small smile falter. "But you can help me feel better." He offered, seeing that she really did want to help.

She looked up hopefully. "How?" She asked.

"Stay here tonight." He answered.

Haley swallowed the huge lump that formed in her throat at his words. "Nathan," She sighed and bit her bottom lip. "I don't think that..., um, I can't..." She trailed off not knowing how to phrase what she was going to say without being so direct. "It's just that, that is a really big deal for me and I always just figured that I would wait until-"

Nathan cut her off once he realized that she thought he was talking about sex when asked her to stay the night. "Haley." He interrupted. "I mean just to sleep. I don't want to pressure you into anything." He answered honestly.

"Right." She answered as a blush found it's way to her face. "Wait one minute, okay?" She asked before walking out of the bedroom to retrieve her cell phone from her purse on the couch.

"Hi mom...Yes, it's Haley...Um, no actually I was thinking about staying at Brooke's tonight, okay?...Yeah...Okay, I'll see you tomorrow...I love you too...Bye." Haley said to her mom before hanging up and dialing another familiar number.

"Hi Brooke...Oh yeah?...Okay...Yes...Listen, if anyone asks I'm sleeping over your house...No, I'm not really sleeping over...Nathan's apartment...Brooke! No...Stop...I'm hanging up now...I love you, Brookie...Bye." Haley smiled and snapped her phone shut before walking back to the only bedroom in the apartment.

"There." Nathan said, pointing to a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt that was laying on the bed, once she walked back into the room. "You can wear those." He said. "Unless you want to stay in your jeans." He added as and after thought.

Haley took the clothes from the bed and walked into the adjoining bathroom to change. She folded the sweatpants at the top and bottom a couple of times to make them fit her a little bit better and then slid the t-shirt over her head, which ended up going down to about the middle of her thigh. She felt even smaller than she already was in Nathan's clothes.

Haley crawled onto the bed next to Nathan. She rested her head on his shoulder as he wrapped his arm around her waist and she sighed contently.

Even after two weeks, Haley still couldn't believe that things were like this with Nathan. A month ago, she would have never even thought about befriending let alone date him. Things sure do change and they change fast. She was happy though. Although, Nathan wouldn't tell her what was wrong she was sure that everything would be okay. She smiled to herself before closing her eyes hoping for sleep even if she felt a little guilty for lying to her mom about where she was sleeping.

Nathan looked down at Haley. He was lucky to have her. He knew it. He knew that she was special and that he probably didn't deserve her. When Haley walked through the door earlier that night, all he could think about was how he didn't want to talk to anyone or be near anyone. He wanted her to leave, but who would have guessed that laying here with her now would be what was helping calm down. She had this hold over him already and he didn't know what it was. Guilt washed over him as his conversation, if it even qualified as a conversation on his half, with Tim came rushing back. He honestly had forgotten about that stupid bet. This wasn't part of the plan.


	11. Thanksgiving Surprises Part 1

**Hey everybody. I'm glad a lot of you liked the last chapter. Thanks to all of those who reviewed. Here's the next one. As always please review and let me know what you think.**

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It was now Wednesday and Thanksgiving Day was tomorrow and everyone would be doing their own thing with their families for the day, but for now the night included six best friends, pizza, lots of junk food, two comedy movies, a chick flick, and a horror movie. The six teenagers all agreed on staying in and having a movie night. They were all currently spread throughout the living room of the Davis residence. On the smaller couch sat Peyton and Jake and on one side of the large couch was Brooke and Lucas while Nathan and Haley curled up together on the other side. They had finished watching some of the movies and were just hanging out now until they felt like going home.

"So, what is everyone doing tomorrow for Thanksgiving." Jake asked everybody.

"My dad's coming home. He's going to stay here for a while." Peyton was the first to answer. She was so excited that her dad came home for Thanksgiving. His job working on a dredging boat kept him away from home all of the time. She missed him, especially since her mom wasn't alive anymore. She wished that he would stay home more often, but she couldn't bring herself to ask him to do that and be away from his work. He loved his work and she just wouldn't feel right asking him to give it up. Sure, she got lonely living in her house all by herself, but her friends would try to make sure that she wasn't alone too much. Especially Jake. She didn't know what she would do without a great friend like him.

"Peyton, that's great!" Haley exclaimed. She was so happy for Peyton. She knew that Peyton missed her dad so much more than she would have because of her mom. Haley was glad that Peyton would be spending Thanksgiving with her own family. Even if her dad was the only other person she would be with.

Peyton gave a big smile that she just couldn't contain. "Yeah, it is." She said. She couldn't't wait for father's arrival tomorrow.

"My mom's parents are coming tomorrow. Mom's going to cook some big dinner as always." Lucas answered. Every year at Thanksgiving, his grandparents would come over and his mother would always cook more than enough food for four people. They would eat leftovers for almost the whole week after.

"I'm spending Thanksgiving with the James family." Brooke announced with a smile. She loved the James, she really did. She had grown up with Haley. Mr. and Mrs. James became her second set of parents. Actually, they were more pf parents to her than her own parents were. As her parents started being home less and less Brooke spent more and more time at the James house. They were more of a family to her than her own. She even thought of all of Haley's siblings as her own. She was loved being at the James house, especially during the holiday's because it was always ten times more crazier than it already was, but she always felt so hurt that her parents didn't even care enough to come home from where ever it was for the time being. She scoffed at the idea of her parents actually wanting to spend time with their daughter. They acted like it was so much trouble to actually care for their child like normal parents. She would never admit that she wanted her parents attention and that she wished they would come home, at least once, but that was what she really wanted.

"Yeah, lucky you. All my crazy siblings are coming home. Except maybe Taylor. We aren't really sure about here. We haven't heard from her for a while." Haley said. She loved the holidays. All of her siblings would come home with their families and sometimes she really missed all her brothers and sisters.

"Oh, be quiet. You know you love it. And so do I." Brooke replied.

Haley laughed. "Yeah, I love it too." She admitted.

"Well, lucky me, I'm stuck driving up to Charlotte with my parents to go to my grandparents' house. That should be fun." Nathan said sarcastically, wrapping his arms around Haley.

"You poor thing. You actually get a Thanksgiving meal with your parents and grandparents. How horrible." Haley said to Nathan as she turned in his arms to face him.

"Haley, it's my dad and his dad. Their evil. Where do you think my dad got it from?" He whined. This year, he was going to his grandparents house and he wasn't really looking forward to it. He was going to be stuck in a car with his mom and dad for three and a half hours. That should be interesting. Although, he didn't mind his mom, it was his being stuck with his dad that bothered him. He couldn't't wait to hear what his dad was going to yell at him for this time. The last time he talked to his father was when they had a confrontation a couple of days ago. Not to mention once they got there it would not only be his dad, but also his grandfather would be there to. He couldn't't stand being in the same place as one of them, but both at the same time was pretty much unbearable.

"But, I mean do you even have to go? You're emancipated, can they really force you to go with them?" She asked. She didn't understand why he wouldn't want to be with his family. She knew that his dad pressured him about basketball, but it couldn't be so bad that he never wanted to see the guy, but then again he did get emancipated from his parents so apparently there was something wrong.

"Yeah, man, just don't go." Jake added.

Nathan shrugged. "It's Thanksgiving. What else am I going to do?" He hadn't even realized that he didn't even have to go, but did he really want to spend Thanksgiving alone at his apartment without a traditional home cooked Thanksgiving meal?

"You could come to my house if you don't feel like going. My mom won't mind. Besides she always cooks so much extra food so it's not like there won't be enough." Lucas offered.

Nathan thought about it for a minute before saying, "I'll be there." He liked Karen and he definitely liked Karen's cooking. Plus, it was a whole lot better than spending the entire day with the monster of his father.

"Great, I'll let my mom know. She'll be happy that more of her food will be eaten." Lucas said.

Haley yawned and looked over at the clock. It was almost midnight. Eleven forty-five to be exact. She looked up at Nathan. "Can you take me home?" She asked as she yawned again. Obviously, she was tired.

Nathan nodded. He should probably get back to his apartment anyway. He was going to need some sleep if he was going to tell his parents that he wasn't going to Charlotte with him to his grandparents' house.

"Yeah, I should probably get going to." Peyton spoke up. She couldn't wait until tomorrow, her dad was coming home. "My dad's coming home so I want to get up early. Jake and Lucas, you guys want a ride?" She asked.

"Yeah, thanks Peyt." Jake answered.

"Yeah, if that's cool." Lucas said before turning to Brooke. "You gonna be okay by yourself?" He asked her.

Brooke rolled her eyes although she loved that Lucas wanted to make sure that she would be fine. "Yes. I always am. Plus, I'm going to be at Haley's tomorrow. Everything will be okay. Promise." She smiled.

"Bye Brookie. See you tomorrow." Haley said as she gave Brooke a hug goodbye.

"Bye Hales. See you guys later." Brooke said.

Haley turned to Nathan and she wrapped an arm around his middle while he wrapped an arm around her shoulders. "Ready?" He asked looking down at her and she nodded her head. "see you tomorrow, Luke." Nathan called out as him and Haley walked out the front door to his car.

Nathan pulled up at Haley's house about ten minutes later. Haley turned in the passenger seat to face Nathan as he shifted the car into park. "So, now you don't have to be with your dad all day tomorrow. That's a good thing, right?" She asked, deciding on whether it was a good time or not to try to bring up this conversation. She really wanted him to open up to her because she had a feeling this was what caused him to be so upset a few days ago.

Nathan nodded. "Yeah. My mom will be disappointed though, but I just can't spend the entire day with him, let alone four hours in a car. I can't stand it, Haley." He answered.

"I know." She said even though she really didn't. She hated that Nathan wouldn't tell her everything that was going on. She kept on trying to make herself believe that is was nothing and that he just didn't feel like talking about it, but deep down she knew it was more than that. She just wished she knew what it was and why Nathan wouldn't talk to her about it. "Just don't let him get to you." She added.

"I wish it was that easy." He said. "Anyway, I'll miss you tomorrow." Nathan pouted, changing the subject.

Haley laughed. "Nathan, it's only one day. I'll see you again." She teased him.

"Yeah, but I won't be able to do this for the whole day." He said and then leaned across the seat to kiss her.

After reciprocating to the kiss she smiled against his lips before pulling away. "Well that might be a problem, but I think you'll last. You'll be fine."

Nathan smirked and shrugged his shoulders. "Sure, I'll be fine, but what about you? I don't know how long you'll be able to go without kissing me." He joked.

She playfully hit him on the shoulder. "Yeah, whatever." She said and glanced over at the time. Twelve fifteen. "I should go in now. My parents are probably wondering where I am." She said referring to the time with her hand.

"Okay. I'll see you Friday, right?" He asked hopefully.

"You bet." She smiled and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for bringing me home." She said before getting out of Nathan's car and walking up the driveway to her house as Nathan sat in the car and watched her go inside then taking off, heading towards his apartment.

It was Thanksgiving morning. A day where people would watch the parade and football games on TV, eat a lot of food, and just spend some quality time with their families.

Brooke woke up and saw that the clock said nine-thirty. She wasn't planning on going over the James' house until around one o'clock. She was glad that she had the James. She didn't know what she would do without them. They more of a family to her than her own and that was what she was always thankful for at every Thanksgiving meal.

Brooke got out of bed and got showered and dressed for the day. After her daily routine, she went downstairs to grab something to eat. Her stomach was growling. She walked down the stairs and into the kitchen, but when she got there she saw two people in the kitchen. A tall man, with dark hair and dark eyes, wearing a business suit was standing on the opposite side of the kitchen from a tall, thin woman, with dark hair and hazel eyes, dressed in all the latest trends. Brooke blinked twice to make sure she wasn't dreaming. Her father and mother were in the kitchen. They were at home.

"What, um what are you guys doing here?" Brooke stuttered. She was a loss for words. She didn't know what to think or what to do. Her parents were back and she wasn't sure if that was a good or a bad thing yet.

Peyton woke up early. She was so excited for her dad to come home today. She couldn't wait. The day before she had gone out and bought a bunch of food. She was going to cook a Thanksgiving dinner for her and her dad for once he got home. She wasn't sure what time he would arrive at the docks, but he had told her that he should be home before five o'clock. She wasn't an expert at cooking a turkey, in fact she had never cooked a turkey before, so she had asked Lucas' mom, Karen, to write down all the directions that was necessary. She hoped this came out good. If not, her and her dad would just have to end up ordering take-out or something.

Nathan picked up the phone for the third time that morning. He kept dialing the same number over and over again, but he would hang up before he either finished dialing or someone got the chance to answer. He knew he shouldn't be afraid. All he had to do was dial the number and tell his parents that he wasn't going to Thanksgiving dinner in Charlotte at his grandparent's house. He kept telling himself that it wasn't that big of a deal. It wasn't that he was scared, but he just felt bad for leaving his mother with his dad's family. Maybe if he called her now then she could go visit her brother for Thanksgiving, his Uncle Cooper. Then, neither he or his mom would have to suffer with his dad and grandfather, his grandmother wasn't bad.

He dialed the same number for the fourth time that morning. After three rings he heard the familiar voice of his mother on the other line. "Hello." She said into the phone.

"Mom." Nathan said.

"Nate! Happy Thanksgiving! What time are you going to come over? You know your father, he wants to get on the road at a decent time. We have a four hour drive ahead of us, you know. You'll be here soon, right?" Deb spoke in what Nathan called her 'happy' voice. He could always tell when she was pretending that she was happy and this was one of those times. He was guessing that now it was because she really didn't want to go to Dan's parent's house either.

"Um, actually that was what I was calling about." Nathan began. "Uh, Lucas actually invited me over for dinner with him, Karen, and her parents. So, I was thinking that maybe I could just go and eat over there instead of driving all the way to Charlotte just for dinner." He said. He swallowed the lump that was forming in his throat as he waited for his mother's response.

Deb didn't say anything for a couple of minutes. "Mom, are you there?" Nathan asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, that's...that should be fine." She said even though she didn't really want to, but she couldn't make Nathan go or do anything else that he didn't want to do. After all, he was emancipated and he could make his own decisions.

"Mom, are you sure?" He asked although he knew that she was a little bit disappointed, but he just couldn't be with his dad if there wasn't going to be an escape route available.

"Go, Nate. I'll be fine." Deb reassured him. She knew that Nathan most likely felt horrible for sticking her with Dan and Royal, but she also knew that it would only cause problems if he was there and from her motherly point of view she knew that Nathan not going to Charlotte would be for the best. She just wished that it didn't have to be this way.

"Thanks, Mom. It's just that I can't handle both of them. I just can't do it anymore." He signed into the phone.

"I know, Nate. It's okay. I'll be fine. I'll have your Grandma Mae there so, everything should be okay. Have fun at Lucas'. Tell Karen I said hello." She told him. "Listen, I got to go. I'll tell your father something. See you later. I love you, Nathan."

"Bye, Mom. Love you too." He said and pressed the end button on his phone.

When Lucas woke up he didn't smell anything cooking. That was odd because Karen always got up early every Thanksgiving morning to get ahead start on cooking. He walked out of his bedroom and down the hall of his one-story home into the kitchen. He furrowed his eyebrows together when he saw that his mother was not in there and there was no sign of food anywhere. What was going on? He was so confused.

He walked back down the hallway and stopped outside of the closed door to his mother's room. He knocked twice. No answer. Lucas knocked once again. "Mom..." He called out. Still no answer. Lucas slowly opened the door to his mother's room and saw her laying on her side on her bed, her back towards him. He didn't know if she was still sleeping or not so he slowly walked over to the other side of her bed. "Mom, what's going on?" He asked once he saw that she was indeed awake.

Karen sat up. "I was just trying to get some more sleep. You need to pack a bag, Lucas. We're going to your grandparents' house instead of them coming here this year. We should be back in about two or three days." She explained to him. Late the night before, Karen's parents had called her and said that they weren't feeling up to driving from Charleston, South Carolina to Tree Hill, but they would really like for Karen and Lucas to come to their house and Karen didn't even have to cook. Karen had agreed only because she missed her parents and didn't want to not see them on Thanksgiving.

Lucas nodded his head and went to his room to pack some clothes in a bag. He was in the middle of packing when a realization popped into his head. Nathan. He was supposed to come over for Thanksgiving dinner. Damn. He had completely forgot that he invited him over and now he wasn't even going to be here. This was not good.

Haley woke up with a smile on her face. It was Thanksgiving Day and all of her brothers and sisters were coming home with their families. She was excited. The last time all of the James siblings were together at once was last Christmas. She couldn't wait. Every time all of her family was together something crazy and fun always happened. Plus, Brooke was going to be here so everything was great. Nothing could go wrong.

She walked down the stairs and found that no one was there. No parents were downstairs, no siblings were there, no sister or brother in-laws, and no nieces or nephews were there. What the hell was going on? Where was her crazy family at? Haley went back upstairs and found her parents sound asleep in their bedroom. She crinkled her eyebrows in confusion. Usually everyone was downstairs either cooking or watching a football game or occupying with the younger children, but none of that was happening.

What a weird Thanksgiving this was already turning out to be.


	12. Thanksgiving Surprises Part 2

**Hey. Thank you for the reviews. Here's the second part of the last chapter. Please review! Thanks guys.**

**P.S. - I promise to have the next chapter of my other story posted by this weekend. Sorry for the delay.**

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Lucas picked up the phone to call Nathan. He had honestly forgotten that he had invited Nathan over for dinner. Maybe Nathan's parents didn't leave yet and he could still end up going with them so that he would at least have a Thanksgiving dinner.

"Hello." Lucas heard him say on the other line.

"Hey Nate. It's Luke." He said. Nathan was going to be so pissed at him. He knew it, but it wasn't his fault. Not really. He wasn't the one who decided to go to South Carolina. It just happened.

"Luke, what's up, man?" Nathan asked.

"Listen, um, my mom just told me that we are going to Charleston to go to my mom's parent's house. Apparently, they didn't feel like driving here and they really want us to come." Lucas informed his half-brother.

"Wait, so you aren't going to be here for Thanksgiving anymore?" Nathan asked.

"No. I was thinking that maybe you could still go with your parents if they didn't already leave-"

Nathan cut him off. "They did. I just talked to my mom like a half an hour ago. She said Dan wanted to get on the road." He said.

Lucas felt terrible, but there wasn't really anything that he could do about it. Or was there? "You know what, you could probably come with us to Charleston if you want to. We won't be back until the weekend, but if you want to come with us I'm sure that it won't be a problem." Lucas said as the idea popped into his head.

"No. That's okay. I'll just stay here. It's only Thanksgiving. It's not like it's Christmas or anything. I'll be okay. See you in a few days, Luke. Oh, and my mom said to tell your mom 'Happy Thanksgiving.' I'll talk to you later." Nathan said before Lucas could hear the dial tone when Nathan hung up the phone.

Lucas sighed. He felt like crap for inviting Nathan over for dinner and now he wasn't even going to be home, let alone in the same state. Maybe he should give Haley a call. After all, Brooke was going to have Thanksgiving at the James' house so maybe Nathan could to. He would call her a little later. It wasn't like Nathan was going anywhere in the meantime.

A few hours later and Peyton had finished cooking half of the meal. She had made mashed potatoes and stuffing that she would heat up a little bit later and the turkey was looking good so far. She just hoped that she didn't somehow end up ruining the turkey. That would really suck. Plus, she didn't feel like ordering take-out for Thanksgiving dinner.

She anxiously looked at the clock and figured that her dad should be home in a few hours. She guessed that it would probably be around the same time as the turkey would be done. That would work out perfectly. She couldn't wait.

Brooke was patiently waiting for her parents to answer, but neither of them were saying anything. She was beginning to wonder if they even heard her. Maybe she actually was dreaming and if she was she just wanted to wake up. She looked from her father to her mother and back to her father again. Still she received no kind of explanation as to what they were doing home. She knew that something was going on to make them come back and she had a feeling that is didn't just have to do with today being Thanksgiving.

"Can someone please answer me?" Brooke demanded, crossing her arms across her chest as she awaited an answer.

"Brooke, darling, have a seat." Mrs. Davis said after another couple of more minutes of silence.

Brooke scoffed. "I don't want to sit down. I just want you to tell me what's going on. Now, will someone let me know what is happening."

"Brooke, we'll talk about this later. I need to have a word with your mother. Excuse yourself, and go off to your room." Her father said to her in his usual stern voice.

Brooke narrowed her eyes and turned around, stomping her feet as she went back up the stairs. She wanted to know what was going on and she wanted to know now. Her parents were back and they weren't telling her why. They were so frustrating. They always were. But who knows, maybe this would be the Thanksgiving she had always wanted. She quickly pushed that thought out of her head. Like that would ever happen.

Haley was sitting at her desk in her room, typing away on her computer when she heard her door creak open. She turned her head and noticed her parents standing the doorway. "Hi." She greeted them as they entered her room further.

"Hey Haley-Bub." Her mom greeted with a smile.

"What's going on?" Haley asked her parents. She knew something was up as soon as she noticed that none of her siblings were there yet. She was pretty sure that some of them should have been there by now. It was a little after twelve thirty.

"Well, there is something..." Her father trailed off.

Haley raised a suspicious eyebrow. "Just tell me." She said. She didn't want them to beat around bush like she was pretty sure they were going to. She would rather they just come straight out and tell her what they needed to say. "Where is everyone?" She asked remembering that none of her brothers or sisters and their families were there yet.

"They aren't coming." Lydia James stated with a worried expression. She wasn't sure how her youngest daughter was going to take the news.

"What do you mean they aren't coming?" Haley questioned her parents. What weren't they telling her?

"Well, Haley-Bub, there has been a change in plans." Jimmy James began telling his baby girl. "Your brothers and sisters are going to all of their in-laws houses for Thanksgiving this year."

Lydia picked up where her husband left off. "So, your father and I have decided to go on a vacation." She said allowing her daughter to take everything in.

Haley's face etched confusion. "When? Where are you going? When are you going?" She asked her parents.

"That's the thing, honey, we're leaving in a few hours. We're going to just travel. We're going back on the road with the RV. You know the only reason we came back was because your brothers and sisters were coming home for Thanksgiving, but know that that's not happening there really is no reason we can't get back on the road and finish our traveling. Then we can be home by Christmas and won't be traveling anywhere for awhile after that." Lydia informed her.

Haley bit her lower lip. Her parents were leaving again? On Thanksgiving? There was going to be no great Thanksgiving feast? No crazy brothers and sisters? No parents? What kind of holiday was this? She was so confused. She couldn't believe this was happening. Not to mention the fact that they had just said they had only came back because her siblings were coming home. Of course, it had nothing to do with her being here. Sure, she like her independence, but she did miss her parents even if they did call all of the time. She knew that her parents loved her and thought about her while they were gone, but no Thanksgiving? Seriously?

Haley nodded her head. "Okay." She said in the strongest voice she could muster up. "Have fun." She said before turning her back towards her parents and facing her computer again.

Haley's parents walked over to her and both placed a kiss on the top of her head. "Bye, Haley-Bub. We love you. We'll call you later. Be good." They said before leaving the room and then sooner than later leaving the house to get back to their RV and the world that was waiting for them to travel it.

After going back to sleep for a few more hours, Nathan woke up for the second time that day. He couldn't believe that he wasn't having a Thanksgiving. Not that it really mattered, but it was still the concept of not celebrating a holiday. Oh well, anything was better than being criticized by Dan and Royal all day and night long. He sighed and started playing a couple games of NBA Live on his Playstation. He wondered what he was going to have for dinner that night, but pushed that thought aside and decided to worry about it later when it was time to eat. What a great holiday this was; playing video games by himself, alone in a one-bedroom apartment with no Thanksgiving dinner or family. How fun.

Brooke was sitting cross-legged on her bed. Her mother had just informed her that she would not be going to Haley's house tonight. Now she needed to call and Haley and tell her. Brooke dialed the all too familiar number and waited for her best friend to answer.

"Hey Brooke." Haley greeted her best friend after checking the caller-id. "What's up?" She asked.

"Uh, I'm not coming to your house for Thanksgiving anymore." Brooke told her.

"Oh, well that's okay because-" Haley began, but was cut off by Brooke continuing.

"My parents actually came home. We're going out to eat or something. They have something they need to tell me or something. I'm not really sure yet." Brooke interrupted.

Haley was in complete shock. She couldn't believe that Brooke's parents were home. What she couldn't believe even more was that Brooke was celebrating Thanksgiving with her barely there family while Haley was sitting at home in two-story house of a large, loving family alone. What was going on today? "Um, wow." Haley finally said after a couple of minutes of silence. She was speechless. She didn't know what to say. She didn't' even know how Brooke felt about the situation.

Brooke scoffed. "Yeah, tell me about it. Anyway what were you going to say?"

"Oh, um, yeah, so apparently my brothers and sisters aren't coming back home until Christmas so my parents decided to get back on the RV and continue traveling the country. There is no Thanksgiving at the James house this year." Haley informed Brooke.

"Oh, Hales." Brooke sympathized. "I'd invite you to dinner with us, but I highly doubt that you'd want to join us, especially with this so called news that they have to tell me. Sorry Tutor-Girl."

"Nah, it's okay. I'll be fine." Haley said although she wasn't too keen on the whole idea of spending Thanksgiving alone.

"What are you going to do?" Brooke asked. She felt bad for her best friend. She knew how much Haley loved it when all of her family was together again.

"I don't really know. It'll be weird spending a holiday by myself, you know? Actually, maybe I can just go to Lucas' house. I'm going to call Karen." Haley said. Nathan was already crashing their Thanksgiving, so maybe she could too.

"Okay, bye Hales. Happy Thanksgiving." Brooke told her.

"Bye. Good luck with dinner." She said knowing Brooke would more than not need it. "Happy Thanksgiving, Brookie." She added.

Lucas listened as the phone rang. Three rings later she answered.

"Hey." She said into the phone.

"Happy Thanksgiving, Hales." He greeted her.

"You too, Luke. I was actually just about to call you."

"Okay, so listen, you know how I invited Nate over for dinner at my house right?"

"Uh-huh." She said prompting Lucas continue.

"Right. So, there has been a change in plans and it looks like my mom and I are driving down to Charleston. We actually left like an hour and a half ago. I called Nathan, but his parents had already left for Charlotte, so it looks like he's going to be spending Thanksgiving by himself and I was thinking that since Brooke was already spending Thanksgiving with you that maybe Nathan could too. What do you think?" Lucas informed Haley.

"I think that there has been a change in plans over here too. Brooke called. Her parents are home. They're going out to dinner somewhere. Apparently, her parents have something they need to tell her. But there's more. All of my brothers and sisters aren't coming home, therefore my parents packed up the RV and decided to get back to their traveling the country." Haley replied.

"Wow, looks like everyone's plans are getting changed last minute this year."

"Yeah, I guess so." Haley said. "I was actually going to call you and see if I could crash your Thanksgiving dinner, but I guess not."

"Nope. Look, I got to go. I'll talk to later. Bye Hales." Lucas said before hanging up his cell phone.

Haley looked at the phone in her hand. "Bye." She said out loud; maybe to no one. Maybe to everyone. It seemed as if everyone was leaving her to have Thanksgiving all by herself. As she recalled the conversation she had just had with Lucas, she got a great idea and smiled to herself.

It was already a little bit after six o'clock. All of the food she had made was set out perfectly on the table. There was the turkey, cooked perfectly according to the instructions from Karen, sitting in the middle of the table. Then there was the stuffing, made from a box of course, some mashed potatoes, she had learned to make a long time ago and then some vegetables.

Peyton was sitting in her kitchen. She was trying to be patient, but it wasn't working out too well. She was waiting for her father to come home, except it was taking forever. She remembered him saying that he would have been home around five o'clock and an hour after and he still wasn't back yet. She was beginning to get worried. She knew that she shouldn't think like this, but she kept worrying if something bad had happened. Where was he?

Brooke fidgeted in the uncomfortable chair in the restaurant. She folded the napkin made of some kind of fancy material and placed it onto her lap. She arranged her silverware perfectly just like her mother had taught her when she was younger. When she was a kid, her mother had taught how to set up her silverware in perfect order instead of playing with her like a normal mother and daughter did. She rolled her eyes at how her parents treated her like an adult as a child. If they could even be classified as parents. Brooke took a sip of water from her glass as she waited for the waitress to bring the food they had ordered. Her mother was telling her about all the adventures they had while they were gone and she was pretending to listen and be interested, when in fact all she cared about was what they had to tell her and when she would be able to get out of this uptight restaurant.

Five minutes after the food had finally arrived Mrs. Davis began speaking to Brooke again. "Brooke, there is something that you're father and I need to tell you." She spoke in the same monotone voice that she used for everything. Brooke had noticed that her mother had always talked to her like she was anybody else, she had never talked to her like a mother would talk to her daughter. Never.

Brooke silently nodded, signaling that she was waiting for her mother to continue what she was going to say.

"Your father and I have been having some complications recently. With work and each other. Your father is getting a job transfer to California, but I'm going to Paris." She said.

Brooke furrowed her eyebrows. "Okay." She didn't know why her mom was telling her this. It wasn't like they were home anyway.

"Brooke, you don't understand." Her father began in his regular stern voice. "Your mother and I are divorcing and you can either come with me to California or go with her to Paris. Take your pick. We're leaving in about three weeks." He said nonchalantly as if everything was okay and normal, as if nothing was changing.

Brooke swallowed the lump in her throat and fought to hold back the tears that were pricking at her eyes. She could care less about her parents splitting up. It was moving that she didn't want. She didn't want to leave Tree Hill. Brooke pushed her plate of chicken forward and placed her napkin on the table. "Excuse me." She whispered, standing up and walking out of the restaurant. This was the worst Thanksgiving ever.

Nathan was laying on his couch watching ESPN when there was two knocks at the door to his apartment. He got up and walked over to the door. He didn't know who it would be, everyone was doing something for Thanksgiving. He opened the door and in front of him stood Haley carrying a plastic bag.

She smiled at him. "Hi." She said as she walked past him into the apartment, placing the plastic bag she brought on the counter.

Nathan closed the door and walked over to her. "Haley, what are you doing here?" He asked her.

"Spending Thanksgiving with my boyfriend. What does it look like? I brought take-out." She said to him, pulling out containers of food from the bag.

Nathan grabbed her hands to stop their movement. "I can see that, but I meant how are you here? Why aren't you with your family? And what about Brooke?" He questioned.

Haley told Nathan the whole story about her siblings, parents, Brooke, and Lucas calling. They brought the food over to the coffee table in front of the couch and sat on the couch together to eat. After they ate, Nathan and Haley were laying on the couch together watching TV.

Haley looked at Nathan and smiled. "I'm glad I came here." She whispered in his ear.

Nathan nodded. "Me too. I'd much rather spend the night with you than my dad." He agreed.

Haley sighed. She had forgotten all about that. "Nathan, why won't you tell me what's going on?" She asked him. She wanted to know so bad. She wanted to help him in anyway possible if and when he needed help.

"Nothing is going on. What are you talking about?" He asked.

"With you and your dad. I want to understand. I really do, but you won't let me. I have no idea because you don't tell me anything."

"You wouldn't understand." He said and dismissed it.

Haley sat up. "Try me." She pleaded.

Nathan shook his head. "I don't want to talk about this. No, you know what, there's nothing to talk about. Just drop it, Haley."

"Nathan, I need you to let me in."

"Haley, I said drop it." Nathan snapped at her.

Haley winced at his tone and bit her lower lip. She stood up. "I came over here because I knew you were alone and so was I and I wanted to spend time with you. You were the one who brought up your dad, not me. I just want you to tell me things. I need you to let me in, Nathan. I have to go." She said before walking out of the apartment.

Nathan punched the coffee table in front of him. Damn it. He always screwed everything up. But he couldn't help it. His dad always got the best of him even when he wasn't even there. Just thinking about it got him aggravated. Damn his father. He wanted to scream. And once again he was an ass.

What a crappy Thanksgiving it was. Stupid holidays.


	13. Breaking Down

**Thanks for the reviews. Here's the next chapter. Please review and let me know what you think. Thanks.**

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Peyton sat at her kitchen table, that was still perfectly set for the great Thanksgiving dinner she was supposed to have had with her father. There was only one huge problem with her plan. That being that her father had never came home. Not yet anyway. Surely, he would have called. At least that was what she had thought. She was really worried. Her father should have been here a little over three hours ago. Peyton intensely stared at the clock, watching the minutes go by, before turning to look at the door, just hoping for it to open and for her dad to come barreling through it. Nothing. She was going to break down in tears about any minute now. It was beyond her how she had kept her composure this long. Where was her dad?

The sound of her home telephone ringing broke her out of her thoughts. Peyton jumped up from her seat at the table and ran across the kitchen to answer the phone. "Hello?" She asked.

After walking out of the restaurant, Brooke had headed to Haley's house. She raised her hand to her face to wipe away the tears that were streaming from her eyes. She could not believe this was happening. This had to be a dream. There was no way that she was going to leave all of her friends and Tree Hill to go to school for a little less then two years in either California or Paris. Of course, Brooke loved Paris, it was one of the fashion capitols and that was Brooke's whole plan in life; fashion. Once high school was over, she would go to college and then hopefully four years later she would be able to open up her own boutique that sold her own designs from her own line which she had already began designing clothes for and named Clothes Over Bros.

When she finally reached Haley's house a frown adorned her face. She noticed that all of the lights were off except the front porch light and Haley's car wasn't sitting in it's usual place in the driveway. Where the hell would Haley be? None of her family was home and everyone else had other Thanksgiving plans.

Brooke dug through her purse trying to locate her cell phone. Once she finally found it, she scrolled through the contacts lists searching for Haley or according to Brooke's phone, 'Tutor-girl'. Five rings later and the voice mail came on. "Haley, it's me. Where are you? Answer your phone. I need to talk to you. Call me back." Brooke said into her phone. Of course it was just her luck that when she really needed her bests friends, one was missing and the other was in South Carolina for the next couple of days. Brooke sighed and sat down on Haley's front porch swing.

After slamming the door to Nathan's apartment shut, Haley leaned back against it and slid down to sit on the ground and put her head in her hands. She wasn't sure why she had gotten so upset with him, but she couldn't take it anymore. She had been trying and trying to be patient with him, but it was beginning to seem as if no matter how patient she was or how long she waited that Nathan would never really let her in and she couldn't figure out why. All she knew was that he didn't have the greatest relationship with his father. Nathan wasn't even the one to tell her that. Haley only knew this from all of the years that she had been friends with Lucas, who had the same dad as Nathan did, although he had abandoned Lucas and his mother before Lucas had even been born.

Haley wished that it didn't bother her as much as it did that Nathan wouldn't share things with her and let her in, but she couldn't help it. All he ever did was blame everything on basketball whenever he was in a bad mood, but she secretly knew it was more than that and he just wasn't telling her what was really going on. She wondered why he felt like he had to hide things from her. She sighed, knowing that she couldn't answer any of the questions that she had.

"Hello?" Peyton asked into the phone for a second time when no one answered her back right away.

"Peyton." A man's voice came through the receiver.

"Dad!? Where are you? I thought you were supposed to be here awhile ago? What's taking so long? Are you okay? When are you coming home?" Peyton bombarded her father with questions as soon as she heard his voice. This was the phone call she had been waiting for for what seemed like an eternity.

"Peyton, calm down-"

She interrupted her dad. "Calm down? Calm down?" She mimicked him. "Are you actually telling me to calm down right now? I have been waiting for you forever and I'm supposed to just calm down? Seriously Dad, where have you been? What's going on? You better be okay. "

"Okay, I should have called sooner, but our ship was running late and I didn't think it would take this long to get back. By the time we were already on the boat all the cell phones were out of service. I'm so sorry, Peyton." Larry Sawyer explained.

Peyton let out a sigh of relief. "But you're okay, right?" She worriedly asked him.

"Yes. I'm fine. I should be back in about another hour or so." Larry assured her.

"I'll see you when you get here then." She said and hung up before letting her dad say another word. As soon as she hung up, Peyton let the tears that were threatening to fall, pour down her face. She knew that she couldn't cry while she was still on the phone with her dad because then he would only worry about her and he really didn't need to be preoccupied with whether she was upset or not. He needed to make sure nothing happened to him, especially for her sake. They were partially tears of happiness and partially tears of sadness. She was so happy that her dad was okay. She had thought of the possible worst case scenarios in her head while she had been waiting for him to either call or walk through that front door. But she couldn't help except to be upset with her dad for not figuring out a way to get in contact with her earlier. Or ever when he knew that his boat was going to be a little delayed. She sighed and closed her eyes, willing her tears to stop. All she kept repeating in her head was 'He's okay.' She didn't know what she would do if anything ever happened to him, but thankfully, as of now she didn't' have to think about that.

Nathan plopped back down onto the couch. He was so frustrated. Mostly with himself. A little bit with his dad. And maybe a little bit with Haley, even though he knew that she was only trying to be a good girlfriend and that she was truly interested in knowing what was going on with him. He was an idiot. He knew that much, but he just couldn't help it. He wanted to talk to her about these kinds of things, but he just couldn't.

Nathan slid a hand over his face and let out a loud sigh. He didn't know why it was so hard for him to just tell Haley about him problems. If it was about anything other than about his family, then he would be able to talk to her about it in a heartbeat. It was really easy to talk to her. He just didn't think that she would understand. Not with the kind of family that she comes from. An actual family. Nathan wasn't even sure that what he had actually qualified enough to be called a family.

There was his mother, who for years would have rather been working than be at home with her own son and husband. It wasn't that she didn't want to be near Nathan, it was just that she needed time away from Dan. Dan or also known as his father. He was a whole other story. He ruined everything in Nathan's life. Sure, Dan always claimed that everything he did or had ever done was only in Nathan's best interest. Nathan knew better than that. His father only cared about how everything benefited himself, not anyone else. Certainly not how it helped or hurt Nathan. He wasn't a dad, not a real one anyway.

He could only imagine now telling Haley all about this messed up so-called family. She would have no idea what he was talking about. She came from loving parents with like twenty siblings, okay so he was exaggerating, but seriously, she had a lot of people in only one house that loved her. She didn't know anything about a screwed up home life. She had it all. There was no way that she would want to hear him complain that his dad was an ass and his parents could care less about him. Although, his mother had been making major improvements ever since he had emancipated himself. But even when he wasn't legally attached to his dad, Dan still had ways of squeezing himself into his son's life. Usually when Nathan didn't want him to the most.

Nathan knew that he needed to apologize to Haley. Once again. He was always screwing up everything. But he was too selfish to let her go. For personal reasons, mostly being that he really liked her and for other reasons on the side, being the dreaded bet.

He decided on just calling Haley. Maybe if she wasn't too far by now, she would come back. He wasn't sure where else she would go because of everyone else having some other kind of plans with their families for the holidays. So he figured she was either home or driving there. Hopefully she would come back. He really had to talk to her. Nathan dialed the familiar number and waiting for the phone to start ringing, but as it did, he could hear her phone going off somewhere near him. He looked around and saw her purse on the counter. She must have put it there when she was taking the food out of the bags and left it there because she was too busy slamming her way out of his apartment.

Brooke had been sitting on the front porch swing for what felt like forever. She was still on the James' porch, but she was getting really impatient and was tired of waiting for Haley to get back from wherever she was. Brooke flipped her cell phone open and tried calling Haley again. She already called twice and only gotten the voice mail, which was kind of odd. Five rings later and once again the annoying automated voice loudly spoke through the phone. Brooke slammed her phone shut and gripped it tight in her hand as she made her way off of Haley's porch. She didn't know where she was going, but she was tired of waiting for Haley to get back, she was taking too long.

Brooke wandered aimlessly around the town. Karen's Café was closed due to Karen and Lucas leaving for South Carolina. Therefore, no one was home at their house either. Haley was off somewhere in 'The Land of No Cell Phone Reception' or something like that because she wasn't home or answering Brooke's calls. She didn't know where to go. All she knew was that she wasn't going home. At least not tonight.

Both, her best friend and boyfriend weren't here for her when she really needed them. It wasn't really their fault, they didn't know what was going on. Besides, Lucas was in a whole other state. But it just helped if she was mad at the both of them because she knew that they would always love her no matter way. Her parents on the other hand, well, Brooke had her doubts.

No sooner than later, had Brooke noticed that she ended up walking to Peyton Sawyer's house. Sure, they were friends and they had hung out, but Brooke had never come to Peyton with a problem before. Especially not something this major. But maybe it was a good idea to get her opinion on the situation first because Haley would be a wreck once she found out. Before she knew it, Brooke had found herself raising her hand and knocking on the front door. Even though she knew Peyton was probably having a nice Thanksgiving with her dad, there was no way she could handle this on her own. She needed help. She needed a friend. More than she had ever before.

As the tears finally began to subside, she wiped her face with the sleeve of her navy blue sweatshirt. Without even having to look into a mirror, she knew that she looked like a mess. Sometime during her cry fest on the ground outside the door, she had sloppily thrown her golden brown waves into a messy looking bun, sitting on top of her head. Her mascara was probably all over her tear stained face, but she couldn't help it. After all of her thinking about how much she wanted him to open up to her, she had just randomly burst into tears not even knowing that it was going to happen. Haley took a shaky breath and soon her tears were fully gone, but the proof that she had been crying was still left on her face, her eyes being all red rimmed and puffy with slightly messed up make-up.

She really wanted to call Brooke. As she went to reach for her phone, she noticed that neither her phone nor purse for that matter was anywhere to be seen. She must have left inside Nathan's apartment. Haley quickly remembered that she couldn't call Brooke anyway because she was having some kind of family dinner out at some fancy restaurant.

She had no choice. She needed someone to make her feel better and with Brooke occupied and Lucas out of town, Nathan would have to be that for her even if he was the one who made her feel this way in the first place, but it was also her fault a little bit too. Plus, she would have to go back anyway. She couldn't be mad forever. Well, she could, but that wouldn't do any good. Plus, she needed to get her phone anyway.

Slowly, she stood up and turned around to face the door that she had previously been leaning against for so long. She didn't know how long she had been out there thinking and then later crying, but she knew it felt like an extremely long time. She raised her hand and reluctantly knocked on the door. She didn't want to, but she knew she had to. The door flung open revealing Nathan. He stared at her intently for a few minutes before she cleared her throat, not trusting her voice to come out normal instead of shaky. "Hi." Haley tried to say strongly, but it came out as more of a whisper.

He looked at her more and noticed her hair that had been down earlier was now placed up on top of her head and just by looking at her face he could tell that she had been crying. Now he felt even worse. He didn't want to make her cry. The was the last thing that he wanted to do. He didn't want to see her like that. Especially, if he was the cause of it. "Haley." He breathed.

Nathan reached out and grabbed her wrist, pulling her into his apartment, shutting the door with his other hand. He pulled her into a tight hug. He smiled a little bit to himself when he felt her hug him back. That was something at least. He was actually surprised that she had come back. He hadn't expected her to. After all, he was the asshole, not her. Even though, technically in his mind he wasn't doing anything wrong. He was just going to apologize because he made her upset.

Haley sniffled and held onto Nathan for a little bit longer before letting go of him. "Sorry." She said to him.

Nathan's face crinkled in confusion as he pulled away from her. "What? Haley, why are you sorry? I was the one who got mad at you for pretty much no reason." He reminded her. He knew she was only trying to help him.

She nodded her head. "Yeah, I know, but I was the one who kept trying to push you into talking to me. If you don't want to then you don't have to. So, I'm sorry." She reasoned.

He grabbed Haley's hand and brought her over to sit on the couch. He closed his eyes and sighed before turning to face his girlfriend. "Look, here's the thing, Hales," Nathan began speaking. "you have nothing to be sorry for. I got mad at you for no reason. I'm the one who is sorry. I know that you were just trying to help me, but it's kind of hard for me to open up to you about certain things and my dad, or my family in general is one of them. Actually, it might be the only thing. Just be patient with me. Please? I'm trying, but I need you to wait. At least just a little bit longer." He told her.

Haley bit her bottom lip and nodded. She didn't know what to say to him so she just laid her head on his shoulder. She forgave him. She really did. It was just hard for her to know that he was holding things back for her, but he said that he was going to open up to her more, so she trusted that he would in just a little longer, so he could be comfortable with talking to her about his serious problems.

Nathan placed a kiss on the top of her head. His hand rested on her waist and slid under shirt as he absentmindedly began rubbing small circles on her bare skin. "Why were you crying earlier?" He asked.

"I don't like fighting like this with you." She said softly.

"Me either, but I don't want you to cry." He said and felt her nod her head against her shoulder. "I tried calling you. You left your phone and purse here." Nathan informed her.

"Yeah. I was going to call Brooke before I remembered she was actually with her parents. Why did you call?"

"I was going to ask you to come back over." He admitted. Haley let out a small laugh. "What's so funny about that."

She sat up and faced him. "I was sitting outside the door the whole time." She said with a small smile.

"What? Why?" He asked.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know really. I was mad at you. And me. So after I slammed the door, I just sat down against it." She answered before grabbing his face between her hands and kissing him softly.

Peyton opened the door, only to be faced with Brooke Davis. "Brooke?" She asked.

Brooke nodded as tears fell from her eyes. "I'm moving." She cried.


	14. Everything's Gonna Be Alright

**Hey guys! Thanks to those who reviewed even though I didn't get that many :( So here's the next chapter. It's a little bit shorter, but I feel like it has all of the necessary information in it. Anything else I feel would have been not needed and unwanted. Please read and review. Let me know your thoughts. Thanks.

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**She lay in her bed tucked comfortably under her light purple comforter. She had a tear stained face and visible wet tear spots covering parts of the dark purple pillowcase. She must have been there for hours. At least it seemed that long. Her iPod was playing in her ears as she tried to drown out all of these feelings that she was having. Music was always a way out for her, but it wasn't working so much right now. She was a complete mess right now and she knew it too. There was no denying it. This was killing her. She felt as if she was dying a painfully slow death. It was terrible. It was like she couldn't breathe. Her heart was breaking and there was only one reason at the current moment for it. The reason was that her best friend since pretty much forever was leaving.

Haley was never going to forget every single detail of when Brooke came over earlier that afternoon. It was going to be etched into her memory forever. She just knew it would be. There was no forgetting this. This was probably hands down, without a doubt, one of the worst days of her seventeen years of living. She was doing a lot better now than she had been before, when Brooke had first come over and told her the devastating news. She had stayed strong for her best friend and held Brooke while she cried. Haley knows that Brooke doesn't want to leave. Neither of them want this. But she had to be strong for Brooke because that's what friends do for each other. They are always there for each other when one of them needs it. And it was a definitely a time when Brooke needed her friend. As soon as Brooke had closed the door and left Haley broke. She felt like she was glass and she had just been shattered everywhere into a million pieces. This was a complete nightmare. She was going to lose her best friend.

The tears started pouring out and her body shook uncontrollably as she cried. She brought her knees up t her chest and held them close to her as she just sat there frozen for a while, like she was a statue. She was all by herself. Alone with her thoughts.

She didn't know what she was going to do with Brooke shipping off to either Paris or California. It all depended on which ever parent she ended up deciding to go with. It wasn't like either of her parents paid any attention to her anyway. Unless they needed something out of her, which was only for her to be the perfect daughter at a few parties and dinners here and there. It was pretty rare though. Most of the time Mr. and Mrs. Davis acted as if Brooke seized to exist. Haley couldn't understand why Brooke had to move across the country or to another one at that with a parent that ignored her. It didn't make any sense what-so-ever. Maybe Mr. and Mrs. Davis were finally trying to act like real parents for once in their lives. Yeah right. What was she thinking?

She felt like a horrible friend. All she had done was comfort Brooke as she cried earlier that day and kept repeating, as if she was an automatic machine, 'It's going to be okay, Brookie.' And then every once in awhile she would add in an 'I promise' even though both of the teenage girls knew that Haley didn't actually have any right to be promising that to Brooke. Haley had no idea what was going to happen and it wasn't like she could do anything about it, but she that she couldn't live without her best friend. Especially not throughout the rest of their junior year and all of senior year. High school was supposedly the best years of their lives. This wasn't the best right now. They were supposed to go through high school together. All of high school, not just halfway through. This wasn't supposed to happen.

Now here she was, lying in her bed, doing absolutely nothing at all that could or would help Brooke out in any way, shape, or form. This had to be even worse for Brooke because not only did she have to move far away from her home, friends, and boyfriend whom she loved with all of her heart, but to pile onto that her parents were splitting up. This had to be so rough on her best friend and Haley was just sitting here like a log going nothing productive. None of this laying around and sobbing was helping anyone. Not even herself.

New tears formed in her eyes and she didn't know what to do anymore. She couldn't do this. Not alone. She pulled her earphones out of her ears and reached over to her night stand and grabbed her cell phone off of it. After flipping it open, she scrolled through her contacts list until she found she name of the person that she was searching for. Holding the phone up to her ear, Haley listened as the phone rang on the other line.

"Hello?" The voice answered.

"Hey. It's me." She whispered into the phone.

"Hey. What's up?" The person asked with confusion. Why was she whispering?

Haley swallowed the huge lump that was beginning to form in her throat. "Um...can you just come over?" She asked vulnerably. "Please." She added in a whisper that was so low that is was close to not being audible at all, but she was heard.

"Yeah, of course. Give me about ten minutes, alright? Is everything okay?" The voice asked.

Haley shook her head no, but the remembered that the person she was talking to could not see her shaking her head over the phone. "Just come." She said softly before snapping her phone shut and tossing it next to her on the bed. She fell back against her pillows and let out a shaky breath and closed her eyes, as she waited for her guest to arrive. She just it hoped it would be soon.

Brooke sat on the carpeted floor in the center of her bedroom in her enormous house. She looked around at all of the empty, brown, cardboard boxes surrounding her that were just waiting to be filled and sealed shut before getting shipped off to their new destination. She frowned and sighed. There would have been tears streaming down her face right about now if only she had any tears left in her. She had cried most of her tears at Haley's house when she had went over to tell her best friend the news about the move. It only made things worse, even if Haley told her that it would all be okay, she knew that Haley was just saying that. Nothing would be the same. Nothing would be okay.

She didn't want to pack. If she did then it would only all start to become even more real and she refused to believe that this was actually going to happen. This was a dream. Well, a nightmare, but a dream state of life. It had to be. She had to believe that because if she didn't, she wasn't sure what she was going to do. Her life would be turned upside down. Her life would be officially over. So, for now, she was going to put off packing her belongings in those boxes for as long as she possibly could and ignore it all. She was just going to pretend this wasn't happening and that her life wasn't spiraling downward.

A thought then instantly entered her mind and once again everything seemed all too real and messed up. Once again.

Lucas. That one thought. That one single person changed it all. Changed everything. It was starting to hit her off like a ton of bricks. She had been so wrapped up with her own thoughts of not wanting to move and everything that she had completely forgotten about having to tell Lucas that she was leaving. Of course, it didn't help that he was out of town at his grandparents' house in Charleston, South Carolina and would still continue to be for the next couple of days. Lucas meant the whole world to her. She was so much in love with him. It was crazy. He was everything to her. It was going to break her, having to tell him that she was leaving him to either be across the country or in a whole other country, she just hadn't made the decision which one it would be yet. In fact, she was putting that decision off for as long as possible, along with filling the boxes. Either way she'd be alone, due to her parents not caring about her enough. Or maybe even at all, but that was a whole other story.

A fresh batch of tears formed in her eyes and as much as she didn't want to cry anymore, there was nothing that she could do about it. She couldn't help it. The mere thought of leaving Lucas behind was unbearable. This really sucked. Big time. She wished that this didn't have to happen, but there was no other way. She grabbed the box of tissues that she had conveniently placed next to her when she first came in and sat down. She then scooted across the room towards her bed and pulled out an old shoe box out from underneath of it. Opening the box, she choked back some more of her tears seeing all of the contents that sat inside. Brooke's gaze fell upon a stack of pictures. She picked up the stack of photos and began to flip through them. Most of them were solely of her and Lucas. She would definitely have to bring these with her. Gosh, she loved him oh so much. Maybe it is true what they say, 'you never know how much something really means to you until it's gone.' Or in Brooke's case, almost gone. Poor Lucas, he didn't even know yet. Of course, she adored Lucas and had always appreciated him and what they had together, but it was now that she realized how much more he really was to her than she had originally thought. He was her pretty much her whole life. She didn't know what she was going to do without him. Long distance relationships hardly ever worked out in the end and the thought of Lucas being with anyone else other than her only made her even more upset than she had been before. A few minutes later and she was completely bawling her eyes out. She was going to miss him so, so much.

The James family, minus Haley, were all off somewhere on the world, so he just decided to let himself in and walk right into the house. Looking around the first level of the house he noticed that Haley was nowhere to be found. He made his way up the staircase of the two-story house and headed to where he knew Haley's bedroom was located at. He lightly knocked on the door and then pushed it open when he received no answer from her.

The raven haired boy smiled at the sight in front of him. Haley was snuggled up, sleeping in her bed, clutching a stuffed bear, which looked a little old, with her earphones in her ears and her iPod gripped in her hand.

He walked over to her queen-sized bed and pulled her iPod out of her grasp. After he set it on the night stand next to her bed, he walked around to the other side of the bed, where he slowly slid in next to her, careful not to wake her up. He wrapped his arms around his girlfriend's petite frame.

Haley slowly shuffled in her bed as she awoke from her sleep. She smiled to herself as she felt a pair of familiar strong arms wrapped around her. She knew who they belonged to. She must have fallen asleep after she had hung up the phone with him. She was just glad that he was here. There was no one else anyway.

She turned in Nathan's arms to face him and gave him a small smile, that didn't quite reach her eyes due to events from earlier that day, when she noticed that he was in fact awake.

"Hi." She whispered softly to him.

Nathan leaned his head forward and pressed a soft kiss on her lips. "Hey you." He responded to her.

"How long have you been here?" She asked him with curiosity.

He shrugged his broad shoulders. "Ten minutes?" He guessed. "Not long." He assured her.

"Thanks for coming over." She said sincerely. She didn't want to be alone.

Nathan nodded his head. "No problem. Anything to be with you." He smirked playfully. "So, what's going on? Really?" He questioned seriously. He knew something was going on.

Haley took her bottom lip in between her teeth. "I just have some things happening right now. Or one thing. Just lay with me for a little bit?" She asked.

He nodded his head. Even though he wanted to know what was happening he would wait until she was ready to talk about whatever it was that was bothering her or plaguing her mind at the moment. Nathan reached across Haley and grabbed the stuffed bear that he saw her holding when he first walked into her room. "So, what's this?"He asked with a smile on his face.

Haley laughed a little and grabbed her stuffed bear from him. "Not what. Who." She stated. "And his name is Mr. Waffles." She pretended to pout, hugging her bear.

"Oh, well sorry. I don't think we have ever been properly introduced before." He said, smirking.

Haley lightly smacked Nathan's arm. "Leave him alone." She whined, holding Mr. Waffles tightly to her before going silent once again.

Then she couldn't hold it in anymore and the tears began forming in her eyes once again.

"Hey." Nathan said while lifting her chin with two of her fingers. "Look at me. What's wrong? You can tell me. You know that right?" He said honestly. He cared about what was bothering her. Mostly because he really cared so much about her.

"Brooke is moving." Haley whispered barely audible. "She can't leave me." Haley said starting to sob. "What am I going to do without her?" She asked as she cried even harder.

Nathan didn't know what to say. He hadn't been expecting her to say that. So he just settled for not saying anything at all and comforting her by just pulling her even closer to him and holding her tight as she cried into his chest.


	15. Moving In

**Thanks for the reviews. Happy Thanksgiving. Please review this chapter!**

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In her drunken stupor, she had agreed to the bet. She had only agreed because she didn't know what exactly it was that she was agreeing to. This would have never happened if she was sober. Not in a million years. But with the effects of the alcohol her thinking about the consequences was thrown out the window. She just wanted to play another game of beer pong and if agreeing to a bet got her to do just that then she was all for it. If only she had known what she was saying yes to before she said it. However, now she says that she is thankful for her drunken mistake because this was what had led her to being with Nathan. But she might have to re-think that if only she knew the other side of the story.

"_I'll find a girl. One that doesn't want you." Tim said starting to scan the room for his choice as he thought of the terms of his bet with Nathan. "You have to get her to be your girlfriend. It has to last two months–"_

"_Two months? Why that long?" Nathan asked incredulously. He never stuck with one girl that long. It was ridiculous._

"_Because that's the perfect amount of time to prove to me and everyone else it's real." Tim explained. Who knew that he was actually smart sometimes? _

"_What's at stake?" Nathan asked. He wanted to know what he was getting at the end of all this. Especially if he was going to have put up with some girl two months after he convinced her to be his girlfriend, that would be the easy part._

"_You get to prove what you just said is true. You get prove the every girl wants you. It's your reputation." Tim said simply. "Unless you don't think you can do it, that it."_

_Nathan nodded in return. He would do it. And he would do it for two reasons. One, he never backed down from a dare or a bet. Two, he liked a challenge, so this should be interesting. "Deal." He said as he took a sip of his drink. "So, who's the girl?"_

_Tim looked around. He needed to find to someone who had never showed interest in Nathan before. This was a hard task. He kept scanning the room when he finally found the perfect girl. She was stumbling through the kitchen, heading towards the backyard. She had long blonde hair and Tim knew her as Lucas' best friend. He also knew that she hated Nathan. Perfect. "Her." He said and pointed in her direction._

_Nathan turned and his eyes almost popped out of head when he saw her. "Dude, you've got to be kidding me." He said. What the fuck was Tim thinking? Haley hated his guts. Maybe this would be harder than he had originally thought, but a bet is a bet and a deal is a deal._

"_Nope. Have fun." Tim said before walking away._

Haley had so much on her mind. Mostly about Brooke. Her best friend had told her that she was leaving. Moving far away at that. Brooke's move had gotten post-poned for a week due to an important business meeting that her parents were attending or something along those lines. Haley hadn't talked to or seen anyone for two days. She had locked herself in her room. She wouldn't talk to her parents when they called, not Lucas, not Nathan. Not even Brooke because she wanted to be strong for her best friend and she didn't want Brooke to see her until she could be strong for her..

Lucas had gotten home about three days ago and hadn't seen or talked to his best friend since before he left for Charleston. Brooke had told him about the move, but he was handling it for Brooke. She needed someone to be strong for her. He knew that Haley had tried to just that while he wasn't here and he appreciated it, but she just couldn't do it anymore. And he didn't blame her. It was hard for him to pretend that everything was going to be okay.

Nathan hadn't seen or talked to his girlfriend since the day she called him over and told him Brooke was leaving and he comforted her. That was two days ago. He was really worried about. She wasn't answering her cell phone at all, but she kept it on. He would go over her house and talk to her through her door, but she didn't respond or open the door.

Brooke was a mess. Haley was pulling away from her. This wasn't what she wanted to happen. Telling Haley was one of the hardest things she ever had to do. Telling Lucas was the other. He took it surprisingly well which only made her cry even more because it made her think that he really didn't care how far away she was moving. She still hadn't decided on where to. Mom or Dad? Paris or California?

Haley had a lot of time to think about everything that was happening. She decided that she going to call her parents. They were probably really worried about her when she hadn't answered their last two calls. She felt horrible about it. She called her parents and talked to them for awhile. Haley told them everything that was going on and a little bit later she finally hung up after assuring them that she would be okay.

Haley showered and got changed from the sweats she had been wearing while she sulked and called Brooke to meet her at Karen's. Brooke had of course invited Lucas and Peyton who in turn invited Nathan and Jake. So they would all be there. Most of them were trying to spend as much time with Brooke as they could before she had to leave next week. Haley has realized that there was nothing that she could do about so she might as well make the last week she had with Brooke count for something.

Haley walked over to Karen's café. By the time she got there she looked through the window and saw that everyone else was already sitting down at one of the tables inside. As she walked in, the bell over the door jingled loudly signaling that someone was entering the café. They all looked over to see Haley walking in. Nathan got up from the table to walk over to her. When he reached her, he pulled her into a giant bear hug. "Hey. You okay?" He whispered into his ear as she returned the hug.

She nodded her head. "Yeah, I'm fine." She promised as she thought of how much she appreciated this hug. She really needed a hug right now and this was a good hug. You could never underestimate the power of a simple hug. "Let's go." She said referring to retreating to the table where the our four members of their group were patiently waiting.

As Haley neared the table, Brooke jumped out of her seat and pulled her into a tight hug. "Brooke, I need to breathe."

"Oh sorry." Brooke said meekly as she pulled away from her best friend. "I missed you Tutor-girl." She revealed.

"Me too. Sorry, I shut you out. I know you need me. I was being such a bad friend." Haley apologized.

"Stop, it's okay. Every thing's okay because you're here with us now." She said with a smile as they both sat down at the table.

The six teenagers all ordered something to eat and tried to focus on other things besides Brooke leaving them. None of them really wanted to think about even if it hurt some more than others. They were all laughing and having a good time when Haley's cell phone started ringing.

"Hey Mom." She greeted her mother and signaled to her friends that she was going to go out front of the café to talk to her mom.

Ten minutes later Haley was running back into the café. "Oh my God, Brooke! Brooke!" She was basically screaming.

"What?" She asked startled by Haley's sudden outburst.

"You don't have to leave!" Haley answered breathlessly as she made her way back to the table.

"What? Haley, you know I have to go. My parents are selling the house. I'm not going to live on the streets, you know."

"No. My mom just called and when I was telling her what happened she called your mom and you're moving in my house!" Haley exclaimed happily.

"Are you serious?" Brooke asked jumping up from her chair.

Haley nodded her head and as they started jumping up down and then hugging each other. "This is amazing." Brooke said as she started to cry. "I didn't want to go."

"I didn't want you to go." Haley cried back. Both of their tears of happiness.

"I'm really moving into your house?" Brooke asked as she wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled as Haley nodded her head.

Brooke was ecstatic, she desperately did not want to move away from Tree Hill. She didn't want to leave Lucas, Haley, and all her other friends. She didn't want to leave her cheerleading squad and being student council president. She didn't want to leave Karen's café. She didn't want to leave behind everything she knew and loved. Now she wasn't going to have to leave at all. How great was this? She was going to be living with her best friend. This was perfect.

"Haley, how did this happen anyway?" Brooke asked.

"Oh, well this morning I called my mom and told her everything about you moving and when she just called me back right now she said that it wasn't right for you to leave. After she had hung up with me, she called you mom and even though your mom didn't want to, she agreed to letting you move into my house. It's all thanks to my mom. I had nothing to do with it." Haley repeated what her mother had just told her about ten minutes ago.

"I love Mrs. James." Brooke cried before going over to kiss Lucas. "Did you hear that, Broody? I'm not leaving." She said with a dimpled smile.

"That's great. I love you." He responded. He didn't want her to go. He loved her so much and now she wasn't leaving. She didn't have to anymore.

"I love you too." Brooke said.

Everyone hugged Brooke and told her how happy they were that she wasn't leaving, including Karen. Karen had to admit that if Lydia hadn't done something to stop Brooke from moving away, then she might have had to do something herself. She wouldn't be able to stand by and watch her son's and all of their friend's hearts break as Brooke was forced to be shipped off to somewhere that she didn't even want to be. It just wasn't right. She was just glad that Lydia had done something first. God knows that she didn't have room in her house to keep Brooke there. Plus maybe having her son's girlfriend under the same roof wasn't such a bright idea.

_Nathan watched her from afar and he knew that he was going to need some help if he wanted to win his bet with Tim. He kept watching her until he finally thought of a way to at least get her to be involved with this whole thing. _

_  
He spotted one of the guys from the football team that he had seen Haley talking to earlier. "Hey, you want to make twenty dollars?" He asked as the guy nodded his. "Go bet Haley something. If she loses she has to be my girlfriend for two months."_

"_What should I bet her?"_

"_I don't know. Think of something." He growled as he walked away._

"I'm so excited!" Brooke said clasping her hands together.

Two days had passed by and Brooke, with the help of all of her friends, had packed everything up so they could move it to Haley's house. Today was the day she was moving into the James' house and she couldn't be happier. She was going to take one of the bedrooms that Haley's brother or sister used to have. Haley's and her parent's room were the only ones really being used anyway.

The house only had four bedrooms, but it ended up working out perfectly for their family. The first three children all got their own rooms. By the time the twins came, the oldest, had been moved out. Then once Taylor was born, the next child was moving out. Once Haley was born, another kid was leaving. That left each bedroom occupied at all times, but it worked out great.

Haley couldn't wait for Brooke to move in. She was so happy that Brooke didn't have to leave anymore and it was all thanks to her mother. Besides, it wasn't like Brooke didn't basically live at the James' house anyway. Brooke was there constantly with her parents never being home or being home and just not caring. Brooke had always considered the James' house more of a home to her than her own. Now it was just becoming official.

"Got everything?" Lucas asked as he, Nathan, and Jake walked back in. She had somehow got them into carrying all her boxes out to the car.

"Yeah. I can't believe this is actually happening." She said more to herself than to anyone else in the room.

"Brooke, are we done now?" Nathan complained. He was tired of carrying boxes of her stuff back and forth. They still had to carry it into Haley's house once it all got there.

"For now. Thanks boys." She said smiling at them and giving Lucas a quick kiss before skipping out of the room to go find Peyton and Haley.

Brooke and Haley looked around the room which now held all of Brooke's belongings. Everyone had brought the boxes over and helped place them upstairs. They made the boy bring all the heavy things into the room and then everyone else went back to their own homes. Brooke and Haley finished setting Brooke's room up by themselves, but they had a lot of fun doing it. Her and Haley's room were right across the hallway from each other.

"Looks good, Tutor-girl." Brooke said as she surveyed their work.

"Perfect." Haley agreed.

"I live here now." Brooke announced with a big-dimpled smile.


	16. What To Do?

**First, I am so so sorry about the wait for the update. I wish I could have updated this story sooner, but I was having trouble writing for this story. **

**Second, thanks for the reviews that I did get, even though the reviews have been declining. I hope people are still reading.**

**Lastly, I hope you like it. Please review!**

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Haley woke up with a smile on her face. Everything was going to great recently. Brooke had only moved in a week ago, but it didn't even feel like it had only been a week long, due to the fact that Brooke had practically been living in the James' house way before that anyway. Brooke had practically grown up in that house instead of her own. Haley was especially happy because now she wasn't by herself while her parents drove their RV all over the place. Besides, she loved her best friend living there with her all of the time.

Plus, things were Nathan were perfect. They were so happy and next week would be their two month anniversary would be coming up. Well, technically it was two months from when they had started dating because of the bet and then two weeks later was when their real two month anniversary was. Normally, she wasn't the type of girl to get excited and giddy over something like two months, but for some reason she couldn't contain her excitement. She couldn't explain it. She didn't know what it was. But she felt incredible.

Things were amazing right now.

She had talked to her parents a couple days ago. They had informed her that they were going to be heading home some time soon, but then again she never really believed her parents when they would say that to her because most of the time they would be thinking of coming home, but then would end up finding another place they wanted to go to and then push coming home back a little while longer.

Yeah, Haley like having the freedom she has with her parents gone and knowing that her parents trust her and now Brooke enough to stay at the house by themselves, but in the end she really did miss her mom and dad.

They had bought the RV at the end of her sophomore year and then began going on short visits to see her brothers and sisters and their families. Eventually, by the time her junior year had started, Jimmy and Lydia James had visited all of their other children at least more than three times. That was when they decided that they were just going to go wherever they felt that they wanted to go. Their trips got longer and now it seemed as if they were hardly home as they just continued going from one place to another without coming back in between each place. At least they called a lot.

Nathan sat on the edge of his bed with his head placed in his hands. He was at the Rivercourt that morning and Tim had showed up. Tim repeatedly reminded him that in one week exactly, the two months would be over and Nathan will have won the bet. He was such an idiot. He never should have agreed to this all for his reputation. But then again, he never thought him and Haley would have ended up actually having real feelings for each other and dating for real because they waned to and not because of the stupid bet.

There was no way that he could tell Haley about this. She doesn't know that he was the one that told that kid to bet her to be his girlfriend and it was probably better for him if it stayed that way. He knew she would get mad and he didn't want that. He really liked her and he didn't want them to break up because of some stupid mistake he made almost two months ago at a party. Although, they never would have gotten together if it wasn't for that same mistake.

Things were so screwed up right now.

He had never really thought about the consequences of agreeing to the bet with Tim at he time. What the hell was he thinking? If he would have known that he would have ended up actually liking Haley James and really caring about her then he would have just found another way to get together with her instead of getting himself into this mess.

He didn't know what to go. He pretended everything was fine when he was around all of his friends and especially when he was with Haley. He didn't let on that anything was bothering him, but this was starting to eat him up inside. He was thinking about it constantly all of the time. He knew that he should tell her, but he also knew that she would be pissed and he didn't want to lose her over something as stupid as this. He didn't know what he was going to do. Why did he always find himself in these messes?

He was supposed to go over Haley's in about an hour. The gang all decided to go over Haley, and now Brooke's house too, to watch movies and just all hang out together. This being one of the rare Saturdays where they all had nothing to do except lounge around watching movies with their best friends.

He would have to go over there and put his facade back up, where he pretended that everything was fine and he was having a great time, when in actuality he was sitting there spacing out and worrying about the mess he had made unknowingly.

He never that one stupid bet that was meant for fun and to prove the he was the best could end up like this. Why did he have to end up having feelings for her? Why did Tim have to pick Haley for the bet anyway? He continued to re-ask himself these millions of questions over and over again even though he knew that none of them would never get answered.

Normally, he would go over Haley's house a little earlier than everyone had planned to meet there just so he could spend some alone time with her. Plus, they would be able to make-out without any of their friends complaining, even if they were all guilty of their own public displays of affection. But as of more recently, Nathan found himself showing up to group events last or pulling away from Haley a little bit, hoping that she wouldn't notice.

He just didn't want to hurt her. He would only feel twenty times worse if he knew that she got hurt because of him and his stupid choices. She didn't have anything to do with this. It wasn't like she had known that Tim had made a bet with him and he had been only using her to win. And neither of them knew that they were going to end up really liking each other. Even though it always made him think back, wondering if maybe he had actually liked her along. Even when they 'hated' each other and were bickering all of the time.

He sighed as he ran a hand across his face. He didn't have any clue as to what he was going to do about this whole situation. He had made a mess of everything and he didn't know how to fix it. It wasn't like he could go to anyone for advice on this either. 'How perfect!', he sarcastically thought.

"Haley!" Brooke called out as she walked across the hallway from her new room in the James' house to Haley's room, a place so familiar to her, a place where she had spent most of her time growing up.

"Yeah?" Haley asked as she grabbed a couple of extra pillows to bring downstairs. The two best friends were getting everything set up for their movie night with all of their friends, which was in half an hour.

"Lucas just called. He's picking up Nathan and they're going to bring pizza." Brooke informed Haley as she flopped on Haley's bed.

"That's fine." Haley said hardly paying attention. "Brooke! I just made my bed!" Haley pouted as she noticed that Brooke had messed up her newly made bed sheets and comforter.

"Whatever. What's the point of making your bed anyway? You're just going to mess it up later when you go to bed." Brooke reasoned.

Haley only rolled her eyes at her friend and waved her hand for Brooke to follow her as she made her way out of her room and down the stairs. She tossed the pillows she brought down onto one of the large couches.

"So, popcorn?" Brooke asked.

"Yes." Haley called out as she made her way into the kitchen, Brooke soon following her so she could stick the popcorn in the microwave.

Brooke walked over and lifted herself to sit on top of the counter top. "So, you and Nathan have been good." Brooke stated.

Haley nodded her head. "Uh-huh. Things are good." She affirmed.

"Your two month anniversary is coming up next week, right?" Brooke asked.

"Two months from the beginning of the bet, yeah."

"So, you guys are going to stay together." Brooke said, even though it came out as more of a question.

Haley paused what she was doing as she whipped around to face Brooke. "What do you mean?" Haley asked cautiously.

"I was only saying that as of next Monday, you're free of Nathan. You no longer have to fulfill the bet you made. I don't even know why you did it anyway. It's not like you had anything to lose if you didn't."

"Because Brooke, I said I would and if I didn't do that then how can anyone believe anything I say." Haley explained.

Brooke looked at Haley for a minute. "I guess you sort of have a point. Anyway, my point is you guys no longer have to even pretend to be together." Brooke acknowledged.

Haley took in what Brooke was saying to her. She had never actually thought about it for. Suddenly everything seemed to be hitting her all at once. She had never really considered what would happen once the original two months was over. Of course she couldn't wait when they hated each other. But they were together now. Surely they weren't going to break up because the bet was over. Right?

Two months ago Haley would have been jumping for joy to get rid of Nathan. They argued all the time and they couldn't stand each other. But then something weird happened and they agreed on being civil to each other which caused them to become friends. And then quickly after they were dating not because of the bet, but because they wanted to. It all had happened so fast. But maybe it was meant to be that way. Haley usually tried to believe that everything happened for a reason.

Haley had only really considered what would happen after the two months had finally come to an end when it first started and they didn't like each other. They weren't together because of the bet anymore so the ending of it shouldn't matter anymore. Or at least she hoped so.

Nathan was going to still want to be with her after Monday. They cared about each other. She had grown to like him so much. She had never considered it possible for them to even become civil enough towards each other where they could even be in the same room, let alone become friends and then eventually something more.

"Wow." Haley said barely above a whisper. "I never really thought about it." She admitted to Brooke.

"Tutor-girl, I didn't mean to make you worry about it or anything. I was just curious. You know me, always letting my mind run wild. I'm sure everything will work out the way it's supposed to." Brooke said.

Haley nodded in response. "Uh huh." She said trying to ignore everything that was running through her mind now. Things were suddenly taking an interesting turn in events. For the good or bad, Haley was still unsure of. She could only hope that whatever happened was good.

"Tutor-girl." Brooke said opening her arms out wide, showing that she wanted a hug.

Haley let out a small laugh as she went over to hug her best friend. She didn't know what she would ever do without Brooke. And especially after the last two weeks when she had thought that Brooke was moving away, she knew she never wanted to know.

"Come on, everyone's gonna be here soon." Brooke whispered in her friend's ear as if she was telling some kind of special secret.

Haley nodded her head as she pulled away from Brooke's embrace and took a deep breath. What Brooke had said had hit her like a ton of bricks. She was usually the kind of person who thought about these kind of things ahead of time. She analyzed and re-analyzed everything. That's what she did. She was 'Tutor-girl' after all. How did this happen? How had she not thought about this before? She wasn't prepared for any of this. For the time being, she was going to have to suck it up and pretend as if it wasn't bothering her, that nothing was wrong.

Haley shot Brooke a small smile, reassuring her friend that she was fine, when she noticed that Brooke was giving her a questioning look. She didn't want Brooke to feel like it was her fault just because she had brought it up. Because it wasn't. Haley should have considered every possible outcome of this coming into it and she hadn't. She had never thought that her and Nathan would become anything more than possibly friends at the most. And even that was a long stretch from where they were. Now because of that, she was worrying herself about all the different possible scenarios that could end up taking place.

"Hello?" The two girls heard someone calling out from where the front door was located.

"In the kitchen." Brooke shouted back, already knowing by the voice who it was.

They soon saw a curly, blonde haired girl walk into the kitchen followed by a brown haired boy. "Hey." Peyton greeted as they walked in. "And where are the other two?" She asked as her green eyes scanned the room for the two extra people that were supposed to be there.

"They should be here any minute now. Luke said they were gonna bring pizza." Brooke informed.

The four teenagers retreated to the living room while they waited for the last two people to arrive, the Scott boys. A few minutes later, Lucas walked through the front door carrying two boxes of pizza.

"Hey guys." Lucas said as he walked into the room and placed the pizza on the coffee table before taking a seat on the couch next to Brooke who was next to Haley.

"Broody." Brooke greeted as she kissed him hello.

"Where's Nate?" Jake asked after not seeing anyone come in after Luke.

"I called him before I left my house, but he said not to pick him up. Something about not feeling well or something." Lucas revealed as he shrugged his shoulders.

"Is he okay?" Haley asked.

"He said not to worry about it, he would be fine and he just needs to sleep it off." Lucas repeated what Nathan had said to him.

Haley nodded her head as she felt a twinge of disappointment. She knew it wasn't Nathan's fault that he didn't feel well, but she had wanted to see him. She needed to be reassured about what Brooke had filled her mind with earlier. Ever since Brooke had brought it up, it had been constantly nagging at her in the back of her mind.

She was so lost in her thoughts that she hadn't even realized they had started the movie. It really didn't even matter if she missed the beginning anyway because she already knew that she probably wasn't going to be paying attention to the rest of the movie. She couldn't get her mind off of what was going to happen with Nathan.

Suddenly things had went all up on in the air. When she had woken up this morning everything was good. Things in her life seemed great and now she didn't really know anymore. Only time would tell. And anything could happen over time.

Nathan sat in his apartment as he played NBA Live by himself. He could have been with his friends, brother, and girlfriend hanging out and watching movies, but instead he pretended that he didn't feel good. He couldn't bring himself to be over there. Not when everything about the bet was stuck in his mind. No matter what he did he couldn't seem to completely forget about it, even if it was only for a little while.

This whole thing was driving him crazy. He didn't know what he was going to do. He could either keep his mouth shut and then be stuck with guilt plaguing his mind about every two seconds whenever he was with Haley or he could tell her what really happened that night, tell her that he was only using her and it was his fault she was in this situation in the first place and possibly risk losing her.

He didn't know what to do anymore. This really sucked. He didn't know if he could handle this by himself anymore. Maybe he was going to have to get some advice from someone, but he just didn't know who. All he knew was that he was going to have to make some kind of decision quickly, before everything blew up in his face and got out of hand.


	17. Blow Up

**Sorry about the wait. Thanks to those who reviewed. This chapter is a little short, but it needed to stand alone. Hope everyone has happy holidays. Please review!**

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Haley sat at her vanity as she lightly applied her make-up, still trying to keep it looking natural and not caked on. Every now and then she nervously chewed on her bottom lip. Her and Nathan were going out tonight. They agreed on going out tonight because it was two months from when they were pretending to be boyfriend and girlfriend and then they were also going to go out two weeks later because that was two months from when they had actually become boyfriend and girlfriend. Nathan was picking her up soon and they were going to go have dinner at one of the restaurants down at the Market Street Docks.

She wasn't usually this nervous when she was getting ready to go out with Nathan, but ever since last week when Nathan didn't show up at her house for the gang's movie night things had been a little weird between the two. She knew that she was acting a little odd because of all the things that were running through her mind, mostly what Brooke had brought up about them not being obligated to be with each other anymore, but she had noticed that Nathan was also not really acting like his usual self. She had thought about brining it up more than once, but at the last minute she had always chickened out and just tried to ignore it. She kept trying to tell herself that it was all in her mind and that nothing was wrong.

Haley chewed on her lower lip nervously as she smoothed out her shirt for what seemed like the millionth time. She didn't know why she was so nervous and she really wished she wasn't. Nathan would definitely notice her nervousness and most likely get a little suspicious.

She wanted to work up the courage to say something about both of their odd behavior. But then on the other hand she didn't want to ruin their night. Haley decided she was just going to wait and see how their night was going. Then maybe if she still sensed the awkward behavior she would bring it up and see what Nathan thought about it. Maybe if she didn't chicken out again, but she was mostly hoping that it was all in her mind. She just wanted everything to be fine and then she wouldn't even have to bring it up.

"So where are you guys going?" Brooke asked as she entered Haley's room. She was glad that Nathan and Haley were going on a date because even though Haley wouldn't admit it, Brooke knew that ever since last week Haley's mind had been in overdrive trying to figure where her and Nathan would be now.

"Um, a restaurant at the docks." Haley answered distractedly as she dug through her closet, trying to find her other shoe.

"Have fun." Brooke said. "You look great." She smiled. She had taught Haley well.

"Thanks." Haley said and smiled as she pulled the shoe out from the back of her closet.

"Don't be out past curfew." Brooke teased as if Haley was her own daughter instead of her best friend.

"Yes, Mom." Haley joked back and the two girls broke out into a fit of laughter.

The sound of the doorbell ringing throughout the house broke Haley and Brooke out of their laughter.

"He's here." Brooke sing-songed from her spot on Haley's bed.

"Bye." Haley said as she looked in the mirror one last time and place a strand of stray hair behind her ear, before grabbing her purse and heading down the stairs.

She stepped outside, shutting the door behind her. "Hi." She greeted him.

"Hey." He said as he stuffed his hands in the pockets of his jeans.

She noticed the awkward tension was still sort of there. She wasn't quite sure what to do next.

"So...are you ready?" He asked trying to relieve some of the awkwardness. He thought that he had been doing a pretty good job of trying to act normal like there was nothing bothering him, but maybe he wasn't doing as good as he thought because Haley was acting a little weird too.

Haley nodded. "Yeah, let's go." Hopefully this would be the only part of the night that was weird and everything else would go smoothly. Hopefully.

Haley sat staring out the window. Other than her small 'thank you' when Nathan opened the car door for her it had been silent. The radio wasn't on because they knew they couldn't agree the same radio station. They had completely different tastes in music. It was one of their common arguments, but it was mostly only some playful banter. And neither one of them had said anything yet so they drove in silence.

Nathan kept glancing at Haley out of the corner of his eyes. He didn't want their whole date to be this way because neither of them would have a good time. He usually didn't have to think of something to talk about because conversation usually just came freely to them, but that wasn't really the case tonight. So he just said the first thing that came to his mind. "You look really nice, Hales." He complimented and he meant it.

Haley hadn't even registered that Nathan had said anything to her at first because she was so wrapped up in her own thoughts in the silence. She subconsciously looked down at what she was wearing. "Oh, um, thank you." She said as she turned to give him a small smile. "You don't look so bad either." She said tying to lighten the mood.

Nathan smirked. "Well it's not like I have to try that hard." He said cockily joking, happy that the tension seemed to be decreasing noticeably.

Haley laughed. "Whatever." She dismissed as they pulled up to the docks. "I'm so hungry and this place has great mac and cheese." She said with a cheeky smile as she hopped out of Nathan's car.

Nathan shook his head slightly and laughed at her childish tendencies.

"Hey! Mac and cheese is–"

"Food of the gods." Nathan finished her sentence. "I know."

"What are you gonna get? Prime rib?" She joked, teasing him about his favorite food as their hands joined together and she entwined their fingers together.

"I don't know yet." He said even though that was actually what he had planned on ordering.

"I told you that you were going to order that." Haley said laughing victoriously as the waiter placed their orders on the table. "You should have gotten what I got." She was so happy that the weirdness that had been there in the beginning of the night was completely gone and they were just having a good time. Maybe it was all in her head.

"Oh, so I can eat like a five year old?" He teased motioning to her bowl of mac and cheese.

"It's good." She defended.

"Yo Nate Dogg!" They heard a voice call out interrupting their current conversation.

Haley turned around in her seat to see Tim and a few other guys she had seen on the basketball team coming up to their table. She suddenly wasn't that hungry anymore as she got a bad feeling in her stomach.

Nathan swallowed the huge lump that he felt forming in his throat. _Just play it __cool_ He kept repeating over and over again in his head like a mantra. He nodded his 'hello' towards the small group of guys, hoping they would just pass by and that would be it.

No such luck.

"What's going on dogg?" Tim said before turning to Haley. "Doggette?" He added.

Haley suppressed an eye roll and settled on just giving a small smile. She had no idea why Tim acted like he did or said the things he did, which usually never made any sense, but she really just wished that him and his friends would leave so her and Nathan continue on with their date. By themselves.

"Tim." Nathan groaned. This was not working out like he wanted. Tim wasn't supposed to be here. Especially not tonight. And he definitely wasn't' supposed to stop by with some of the guys from the team and talk to him. "What do you want?" Nathan asked a little rudely, but he didn't care. He just wanted Tim to go away.

"Yo I brought you somethin'. I was gonna go by your crib lata dogg." Tim said.

Nathan rolled his eyes. "Tim, shut up." He said as the other guys started laughing from behind Tim. Nathan shot Haley a sympathetic look as he tried to convey that he was sorry about this.

"Whatever. Here." Tim said and winked as he put two hundred dollars down on the table Nathan and Haley were sitting at.

Nathan picked up the money and counted it. "What's this?" He asked skeptically. He wasn't quite sure he even wanted to know. Especially in front of Haley. This night was taking such a bad turn. This was not good.

"Just a small reward. We all" Tim answered motioning to himself and the five guys behind him. "and some others had made our own bets off your bet and decided that you deserve to get half of it for sticking it out for these past two months." Tim revealed.

Haley's eyebrows furrowed in confusion. What the hell was going on?

"Whatever. Are you done here?" Nathan asked impatiently. Tim needed to leave and he needed to leave now.

"Well aren't you gonna share that with Haley?" Tim asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. Why should Nathan get to keep all the money when Haley had stuck it out for the two months as well. As far as Tim knew they had been together from the beginning.

"Uh..."

"What are you talking about?" Haley asked no one in particular. She didn't care who answered her, she just wanted an answer. Her attention was fully caught now that her name was mentioned. How was she involved with whatever they were talking about?

"You don't want half the money?" Tim asked. "Dude, that's whack." He said and looked at Haley as if she had three heads.

"Half the money for what?" She asked curiously as she raised an eyebrow. She wanted some answers.

"From being Nathan's girlfriend for the past two months." Time blurted out as Nathan glared at him. If looks could kill, Tim would be dead.

Haley's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?" She asked cautiously.

"Well there was no prize, but you should get something. Isn't it only fair that you get half the money? I mean we were using you and all so you should get something." Tim said to Haley before turning to Nathan. "Right playa!" He said raising his hand for a high-five.

"What's he talking about Nathan?" Haley asked quietly. This wasn't true. It couldn't be.

"Um...–"

She cut him off. "What's going on?" She asked, more forcefully this time.

"Oh don't you know? I bet Nathan that he couldn't get any girl so then I picked you cause everybody knows that you got some beef with Nate Dogg over here. Since you were a bit tipsy you didn't know that you agreed to be Nate Dogg's girl for two months." Tim said, still looking for a high-five.

Haley bit her bottom lip. She thought she could taste a little bit of blood, but she didn't care right then. She could feel tears forming in her eyes. But she was not going to cry. She refused to cry. Taking in a sharp breath she looked over at Nathan. "Please tell me this isn't true?" She practically begged, her voice barely audible with her whisper being so low. A lot of things were beginning to come together now.

"Haley, it's not–" He tried to explain, but she cut him off again.

"It's not what, Nathan? Not what it seems like it? I can't believe this. You took advantage of the fact that I was drunk and used me to win some stupid bet so you and your friends could all laugh about it behind my back. Yes, I guess I did agree, but you know I didn't even know what the hell I was agreeing to. You did. You knew what you were doing, but I didn't. Well guess what, I'm done. Congratulations Nathan, you win. And you can keep all the money because I don't want it." She said pushing her chair away from the table and standing up. "You know, I knew we didn't get along, but I never once thought that were capable of being this heartless. I should have known better." She laughed bitterly as she started walking away from the table.

"Haley, wait!" Nathan called out as he stood up and watched her retreating figure.

Despite Nathan's attempts to get her to turn around and go back, she couldn't do it. There was no way she could turn around. Not now. Maybe not ever.

Her tears now feel freely and she did nothing to wipe them away as she continued walking down the dock. Thank God for Tree Hill being a small town and her being able to walk home from basically anywhere in town.

"Fuck." Nathan slammed his fist down on the table. He threw some extra cash onto the table before picking up the two hundred dollars that Tim had placed on the table and shoved the money into Tim's hand. "Keep it." He grumbled as he walked past them on the way to his was to his car.

This was not how he planned it. He knew this was going to all blow up in his face. Gosh, he is such an idiot. What was he going to do now? This sucked. Damn it.

He had really screwed things up big this time.


	18. Dealing

**I'm getting a lot of hits for this, but not so many reviews anymore so thanks to those who do review - I really appreciate it. Here's the next chapter for you. Please review.**

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Brooke was sitting Indian style on her nicely made bed, which she was convinced to make by Haley. She was flipping through a couple of fashion magazines, adoring the different styles that caught her eye. She loved making clothes and she couldn't wait until she could have her own shop and sell all of her own designs one day. Clothes Over Bro's was her dream.

Brooke usually wasn't the kind of girl who stayed in alone reading magazines, but Lucas promised that he would have dinner with his mom and she didn't want to crash even if they were at the café. Besides she needed a little bit of time for herself just to relax.

She faintly heard the front door shut, but no other noise. Brooke's heart started beating faster as she figured that it was too soon for Haley to be back. They probably weren't even finished dinner yet, so there was no way it was Haley. Oh God. It could always be Mr. and Mrs. James, right? Not likely. She kept telling herself that everything was fine. There was no one in the house. She was just hearing things. But of course she couldn't leave it at that. Her eyes darted around her room in search of something that could possibly work as some sort of a weapon. She sighed when she realized there was nothing. If only she had played sports or she was a boy then maybe she would have something to defend herself with.

Brooke quietly and carefully made her way out of her room down the hallway. She really wished that Haley had also stayed in tonight too or that she had went out because right now she was freaking out. Her was racing so fast and all these horrible thoughts kept running through her mind. _Please let the door closing be all in my mind._ She kept begging to herself.

Brooke slowly walked down the staircase and paused every few steps in case they could see her. They would lunge. They always did. _Stop it._ She told herself. She was only freaking herself out ever more.

Once Brooke finally reached the bottom of the stairs she let out sigh of relief. "Oh my God, you scared the crap out of me." Brooke said as she saw Haley's purse on the floor and placed a hand over her rapidly beating heart. "Hales?" Brooke called out. Her eyes widened as she saw Haley sitting against the wall with her knees pulled up to her chest, tears falling down her face, smudged make-up, her eyes were red-rimmed and her hair was slightly messy. "Oh Haley." Brooke said as she ran over to her best friend and sat next to her pulling her into her arms. "What happened?" She asked softly as she allowed Haley to cry in her arms.

Haley continued sobbing as she tried to answer Brooke's question. She couldn't though. No words would come out. She just continued sobbing and there were a few hiccups here and there, but no answer to Brooke's question.

"It's okay, Haley" Brooke said as she soothingly rubbed circles on Haley's back. Brooke nervously contemplated what could have happened that would cause Haley to break down like this, but she couldn't even guess what went on from the time that Haley left to now. It wasn't even that long actually.

Brooke looked down sympathetically at the smaller girl that continued crying in her arms. Brooke was Haley's best friend. She was supposed to know what was going on with her. At least maybe some kind of best friend telepathy, something, anything. But she knew nothing. And it didn't seem as if Haley was going to want to talk about it anytime soon.

Brooke already knew that it was bad. No, it was worse then bad. This was horrendous. Whatever happened really hurt Haley. Brooke didn't know what to do and that was even worse. She didn't know how to help Haley, or how to make Haley feel better, or to least try to get Haley to stop crying. "Hales?" Brooke asked softly. "Does this have anything to with Nathan?" Brooke asked carefully.

All Brooke got for an answer was a nod from Haley and a sniffle.

Brooke sighed. She was going to kill Nathan for making Haley feel this way. No matter what he did; he was a dead man. She was going to kick his ass. She didn't even care what caused this. Brooke had always been protective of Haley. Mostly because Brooke was older than her and she had always considered Haley as more of her younger sister than her best friend. They were so close and seeing Haley hurt like this hurt her. "How about we go upstairs?" Brooke finally asked after a few more minutes. "We can get in our pajamas. I'll get the chick flicks, ice cream, and tissues." Brooke persuaded.

Haley sniffled again and hiccuped before nodding her head and allowing Brooke to help her stand up. Haley absentmindedly walked up the stairs and into her room where she changed out of her clothes into some sweats while she waited for Brooke.

Haley sat down on her bed and wiped at her tears, only smudging make-up all over more of face, but she didn't care. There was so much sadness and anger inside her. She didn't know what she felt more. She just hurt so bad. All of it just hurt so bad and she didn't know how to make it stop.

Something caught her gaze out of the corner of her eye. She turned to her nightstand and saw a picture sitting inside a silver frame. It was of her Nathan that wasn't taken too long ago. They were at the River Court with everyone else one night. They had been sitting at the wooden picnic table. Haley was sitting in between Nathan's legs with her back leaned against his chest. Her head was tilted upward and his downward. They had been about to kiss until Peyton snapped the photo breaking the moment. Haley picked up the picture frame and threw it across the room. It went sailing through the air until it hit the wall on the other side of her room, the frame falling to the ground and glass shattering everywhere. However this only made Haley cry even harder.

Haley had never been a violent person. She didn't lash out at people from out of nowhere. She didn't loose her temper that easily. And she definitely wasn't the kind of person to throw things across the room. She had no idea where that had came from. She didn't think about doing it. It just happened and she didn't even realize it until after it happened.

It hurt her so much that she had wanted to throw that picture because it was of her and Nathan. It hurt that she no longer wanted to even look at him. She felt like she was going to be sick if she thought about it anymore.

She just wanted to pretend that tonight had never happened. To when the bet hadn't happened. To when she didn't even like Nathan, well at least she didn't know it then. To when they argued constantly. Because that was so much better than what she was feeling right now. She hardly even knew what exactly it was she was feeling right now.

She didn't want to think about. She didn't want to talk about.

She saw a strand of four black and white pictures of her and Nathan from a photo booth taped to her mirror. In the first one the she was smiling and he had his signature smirk plastered on his face. In the second one she was laughing and he was smiling a real, genuine smile. In the third picture, they were kissing. And in the last one they were making silly faces. She swallowed and sniffled as more tears fell from her eyes. She remembered that day so clearly, like it had just happened. Her first thought was to go over to her mirror and rip the strand of pictures up into a million pieces and throw it away. But she decided against that stayed firmly seated on her bed.

"Okay, so I've got chocolate and vanilla ice cream and cookies n' cream." Brooke said holding up the two cartons and two spoons as she entered Haley's room. A box of tissues was under one of her arms and about five DVD's were under the other one as she tried to carry everything over to Haley's bed. Brooke dropped everything on Haley's bed before following her best friend's gaze over to the mirror where the pictures of Nathan and Haley were taped up. Brooke's eyes then caught sight of the shattered glass over in another corner of Haley's room and the picture of Nathan and Haley at the River Court lay on the ground. Maybe this was much worse than Brooke had originally thought. "Oh Haley." Brooke said softly, more to herself, as she surveyed the room for anymore damage.

Haley reached over and grabbed the box of tissues from the bottom of her bed and proceeded to wipe away some of the tears that wouldn't stop falling. No matter how hard she tried. No matter what she did. The tears wouldn't stop coming and there was nothing that she could do about it. They wouldn't stop. They just kept on coming and coming.

"I called Peyton." Brooke offered. "She's gonna come over and watch some of these movies with us." Brooke said. While she was downstairs, Brooke had called Peyton and told her about Haley's current situation. Peyton, who had become a big part of their friendship, had immediately agreed to come over and help Brooke comfort Haley. Hopefully together, they might be able to get Haley to talk to them and tell them what had happened. Because so far Haley had been mute, she might as well have been a mime.

Haley just nodded her head in return.

"So what do you want to watch first?" Brooke asked holding up some of the movies she brought upstairs.

Haley shrugged and she randomly grabbed one of the cartons of ice cream, immediately stabbing the spoon into the ice cream as hard as she could before scooping out a large amount and shoving it into her mouth.

_Again with the silence._ Brooke thought. She didn't know how, but she knew that she needed to think of a way to get Haley to talk about what happened and what she was feeling. Brooke sighed heavily as she looked at her best friend before picking up one of the movies off the bed and putting it into the DVD player. She just hoped that Haley wouldn't keep this all to herself and bottled up inside for so long that she reached her breaking point.

Lucas sat down on the couch in Nathan's apartment and sighed. He place his head in his hands while he just sat there thinking. He had just finished having dinner with his mom and decided to see what Nate was up to tonight. Once Lucas got over to Nathan's apartment he found out that there was no one there. That wouldn't have bothered Lucas because he would have figured that his brother was just out, but as Lucas was leaving he had a run-in with Tim. Tim ended up saying something about Nathan being a bad mood or something and Haley leaving before dinner finished. Lucas had no clue what Tim was talking about, but he figured something bad happened. He just wasn't sure what.

Lucas ended up using the hidden spare key to get into Nathan's apartment. He had decided to just wait for Nathan to get home instead of roaming the town trying to see if he would be able to find his brother. Hopefully he wasn't getting into any trouble though. That was what worried Lucas the most. Nathan was known to act on impulse, he didn't think before he acted and that sometimes got him into a lot of messes.

He had been sitting there waiting for almost an hour now and there was no sign of Nathan anywhere when Nathan finally came through the door. "Where have you been?" Lucas asked almost immediately.

"Why are you here? How'd you get in?" Nathan asked. He really didn't feel like being around anyone right now. And that definitely included Lucas because there was no way that Lucas would know anything about what was going on. He didn't want to talk about it anyway.

"Spare key. What happened?" Lucas answered briefly before moving on to the next question he fired off.

"Get out, Lucas." Nathan warned. He wasn't in the mood for company and right now his brother was starting to piss him off, acting like he was Nathan's parent, not that his real parents even cared this much.

"Fine. I'll see you when you're ready to stop pouting and whatever mess you made is fixed." Lucas said as he tossed the spare key to Nathan's apartment on the kitchen counter before leaving. His brother was such an idiot sometimes.

Nathan locked the door before he walked through the apartment and into the only bedroom, his. He flopped himself onto the bed and let out a frustrated groan. He screwed up big and he knew it. He just didn't know how he was going to fix it.

It was obvious that he had to apologize to Haley. And that was if she even listened to him long enough to hear his apology. He knew she was going to be pissed and he wouldn't be surprised if she acted like he didn't even exist anymore. He mentally cursed himself for not telling Haley everything before, but then again it wouldn't have been that much better; it would have just been his guilty conscious trying to relieve itself.

He wondered what she was doing at that exact moment. He didn't know where she went. He didn't know if she was okay. He didn't know anything and it was driving him crazy.

However, he did know that even she did go home, there was no way he would get in that house to see her. Not if she had told Brooke what happened. Brooke probably wouldn't let him within twenty feet of the house.

Brooke was really protective of Haley, but if he had to go through Brooke just to talk to Haley and try to get her to listen to him then we would do it. He would do whatever he had to because he needed her back.

He couldn't believe he had let this happen. Why was he always such an idiot? Why did he never think these things through before actually going through with them? For once he just wanted everything to work out instead of him messing something up. He had always kept telling himself that he wasn't good enough for Haley, but now that seemed like an understatement.

Nathan kept re-playing the scene at the restaurant over and over again. She was laughing and they were having a great time until Tim came over. But the part that was stuck in his mind the most was when she stood up from the table and walked away. She had even laughed. It was a bitter laugh, but it was still a laugh. There was no tears and no sigh of her even being hurt. She just berated him, telling him how badly he messed things up. As if he didn't already know that himself.

Thinking about the whole situation was beginning to make him sick. He couldn't believe that this had actually happened.

This first time he had ever got attached to one girl that he truly liked, he pushed her away. When he had first realized that he liked Haley as anything more than a friend he had been trying to deny it. Mostly because he didn't think it was possible. Or maybe it was because he never thought that she could actually like him back. But she could. And she did. And in return he only hurt her. He should have just stayed away from her. If they never stopped fighting and agreed on becoming friends this would have never happened. Sure, he wouldn't have the great memories of them together, but he would risk that if it meant that he had never hurt her and made her cry. For once why couldn't he have stayed the ass he was and just continue to argue with her when she even brought up the word friends?

Soon he was up off his bed and his fist was going towards his wall. He shook his hand to relieve some of the pain as he eyed the damage he created on the wall. He was going to need to hang a poster there or something to cover up the hole he had just made. He had just needed to relieve some of his anger and that was the first thing to came to his mind. Actually he hadn't even thought about it, he just did it. Again, he acted on impulse and he would most likely regret putting a hole in his wall later.

She stared at the TV screen that had been playing sappy romance movies for the past three hours. Quite frankly, she was tired of it. She didn't want to watch these movies where the guy and the girl get their fairy tale happily ever after. She didn't want to watch that after what happened tonight. It seemed like these movies were only making her think about it more which caused her to shed more tears than she already was. Haley grabbed the remote from the middle of her bed as she turned the movie off. She couldn't bare to watch anymore. She had had enough of those movies. How they were supposed to make her feel better, she had no idea because they were making her feel even worse and that wasn't what was supposed to happen.

She could feel four eyes staring at her. She turned to see Brooke and Peyton giving her questioning gazes. Haley shrugged her shoulders and rolled over on her side. She knew they wanted her to talk about it, but she didn't want to. She didn't think she was ready to. She needed more time.

"Haley?" Brooke asked her friend. Brooke wanted so badly to know what was going on with her best friend. She couldn't help comfort Haley until she knew exactly what the problem was. Plus, the sooner she knew, the sooner she could kick Nathan's ass.

"I don't want to talk about it." Haley mumbled. The first time she had spoken since she had gotten home. At least she was talking at all now. It was progress.

"Haley it's not good to keep this kind of stuff bottled inside you." Brooke advised. "Talk to us." She begged. She didn't want Haley to hold this kind of stuff from her, keeping it all to herself. It wasn't good for anyone.

Haley shook her head 'no' showing that she really didn't feel like talking about this yet.

"Come on Haley. It'll make you feel better." Peyton added. She had never seen Haley like this before and she wasn't quite sure what to expect or even do, but Haley was her friend and she wanted to help her.

"Yeah Hales. Please talk to us." Brooke pleaded.

Haley sat up from her lying position. "I said I don't want to talk about." She snapped and then stormed out of her room.

She wished that she had somewhere to actually storm off to, but there wasn't. She was already at her house. She couldn't go to Brooke's because Brooke now lived with her and she was getting away from Brooke which was also why she couldn't go to Peyton's. Normally that would have left open another person, but not tonight maybe never. She could not and definitely would not go to Nathan's. She wished she could have so that he could comfort her, but that was not even considered an option anymore. But she still had somewhere else to go that she hadn't thought of right away, she didn't know why, it was so obvious.

Soon Haley was out the door causing Peyton and Brooke to cringe from their spots on Haley's bed as they heard the front door slam shut. They shared a look both unsure of what to do next seeing as they were the ones that had just driven Haley away.

Haley got in her car and drove to the place where she knew she could go. Within the next five minutes Haley was standing on the side of the house knocking on the door to her other best friend's room. Her first best friend.

Lucas opened the door to his room to reveal a crying Haley. He immediately took pulled her into his arms for a hug. He knew this had something that had to do with Nathan because of his run-in with Tim earlier and then Nathan's bad attitude.

He walked Haley over to his bed and they sat down. "What happened, Haley?" He asked concerned. Haley was his best friend before anyone else and he didn't want to see her like this. Especially if it was his brother that made her like this. Lucas had once promised himself that as her best friend he would always protect her and looking at her now he knew he had failed. He wasn't able to protect her from this. Whatever this happened to be.

Haley shook her head as she sniffled and wiped some of her tears away with her hand. "Can we not talk about this right now?" She whispered.

"Sure." Lucas agreed. He could tell that she wasn't in the mood to discuss what was going on, but he figured that she would say something when she was ready. And knowing Brooke, he guessed that she had already tried to get Haley to talk about it. If she knew yet, that was. "I'll get some tissues." He said as he walked out of his room.

A few minutes later Lucas walked back into his room with a box of tissues and a glass off water, only to find Haley sound asleep, curled up on his bed. He sighed as he placed the stuff on his nightstand.

He didn't know exactly what Nathan did, but he was going to find out and Nathan was going to pay for making Haley feel hurt like this. He didn't care if Nathan was his brother. Haley was his best friend long before he and Nathan decided to put their parents past behind them and begin to get to know each other. Haley had always been there for him for every hard process of his life, like getting along with Nathan even though they couldn't get along themselves.

Lucas wondered how this all had happened so fast. It seemed like one minute Haley and Nathan were about to rip each other's heads off and then the next they were dating. It was crazy how it all happened, but looking over at Haley now, maybe he would have tried to stop them from dating if it would have protected her from hurting.


	19. New girl, New tutor

**First, thanks for the reviews. I love them. I also love season five - especially Jaime, he's adorable. Anyway here's the next chapter so please review for me.**

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The clouds in the sky were a darkened gray. The leaves on the branches of the trees blew back and forth with every gust of wind. A bang of thunder reverberated through the sky as large rain drops pounded down on the ground. She sat staring out her bedroom window watching the effects of the thunderstorm. She had always loved the rain. Somehow it had always had a calming effect on her even when everyone else had been afraid of thunderstorms.

Haley sat there as she thought of the events of the past two days. It had been two days since the disastrous dinner with Nathan when she had finally found out the horrifying truth about that stupid bet. After the first phone call from him the next day she had turned her phone off, not wanting to have to deal with it.

When she had woken up the next morning at Lucas' house they had talked about what happened at the docks. Lucas of course was ready to go over to Nathan's apartment and beat his ass for hurting her, but Haley had refused, saying that he wasn't worth it. She had finally came back home after she had gotten Lucas to promise her that he would leave the situation alone and not bring any of it up with Nathan.

As soon as she had walked through her front door the next day, both Brooke and Peyton had profusely apologized to her about trying to force her to get her to talk to them about what had happened and how she was feeling about it. She had known that they were only trying to help, but she couldn't deal with it at the time. After assuring and re-assuring them, well mostly Brooke, that she had fully forgiven them, she finally told them everything. Brooke promised that she was going to beat his ass, which only made Haley laugh at the thought of Brooke trying to beat up someone like Nathan. Neither would leave her alone until she had promised for the millionth time that she was fine and she would go to them if she had any problems.

Haley knew she had really great friends and they cared about her, but she just needed to deal with this by herself. It was something she needed to go through alone and figure out alone. She just didn't know how to make her friends understand that.

A little bit later on that day had been the first phone call she had received from Nathan which was when she had turned her phone off. She couldn't deal with him. Neither in person or calling her. And she didn't need him calling her, causing her phone to ring constantly, especially if she wasn't even going to answer it. There was nothing that she had to say to him and right now there wasn't too much that he could say to her that would make her forgive him, let alone even listen to what he had to say at all. She needed time away from him and he was just going to have to respect that.

The next day was Monday. Haley had really wanted to just skip school and stay in her bed all day long. But against her own wishes she had drug herself out of bed and off to school, by way of Brooke's little blue Volkswagen.

Usually Haley liked to be early for school, but she had agreed on going to school as long as they left at the very last possible minute, with only enough time to get to school, her to go to her locker and then off to homeroom just in time for the bell to ring. She wanted no extra time that morning because she didn't want any chance of having to run into Nathan. Especially at the very beginning of the day. Her plan had been to avoid him all day. Even in the two classes they did have together.

All of her morning classes didn't have Nathan in them so she was fine up until it was lunch time. She decided against eating in the quad with the rest of her friends and locked herself in the Tutoring Center, immersing herself in some extra studying while she ate her lunch. Thankfully, Nathan hadn't tried to come into the Tutoring Center at all during the lunch period.

But after lunch she had two classes with Nathan. Luckily for her, the letters J and S aren't near each other in alphabetical order, therefore they don't sit near each other in ether of those two classes. She had managed to wait until the very last possible minute to get into both of those classes, which was was so unlike her because she usually like to get to her classes early. Then she had exited each class as fast as she could, seeing as she was closer to the door than Nathan was.

After school she knew that Nathan had basketball practice and she was glad that it wasn't one of the days she was tutoring him. Although maybe he wouldn't need tutoring anymore because his grades had increasingly improved above what they had been when she had first began tutoring him. With him having basketball and her having no tutoring session that afternoon she hadn't had to see him after school either. Brooke had canceled cheerleading practice because she knew Haley didn't want to see Nathan yet and she figured all the girls could use a break, plus she could give Haley a ride home.

She had successfully managed to avoid him throughout the entire school day. Brooke had taken her home right after school was over. They had done their homework, well it was more like Haley had done her homework, and watched some movies.

But later that night Nathan had showed up at the front door. Brooke had eventually gotten rid of him after some not so nice words and slamming the door in his face. Haley had felt bad about it, but then Brooke had reminded her that that couldn't have hurt him as much as he had hurt her.

Now here she was sitting in her bedroom watching the rain, reflecting on the recent past events. She didn't want to think about him, but she couldn't stop. And she definitely didn't want to miss him, but she couldn't stop that either and there was nothing she could do to help it. She was stuck missing him when she should hate him. She wanted to hate him so bad. So bad. But she just couldn't. she thought back to when she thought she had hated Nathan, but realized she had never really hated, she had only said that she did because she had made herself believe that she did.

She had also realized that she had changed around her entire her school schedule to revolve around her not having to not see him, but she wasn't seeing her friends either with her new wacky plan. That was not going to work out for the rest of the year. She came to the conclusion that she was just going to suck it up and stick her regular schedule, putting on her bravest face and pretending that this wasn't hurting her; no matter how much it really was on the inside.

Haley got into her bed and the tears had begun falling again. She didn't want to cry over this, over him anymore, but it just wouldn't stop. She laid there still as the tears slid down her cheeks, crying herself to sleep.

Haley took a deep breath as her and Brooke pulled up to Tree Hill High School the next morning. She promised her that she wasn't going to rearrange her entire schedule again; it just made things worse. Hopefully, she wouldn't even see Nathan too much during the day.

The two girls had spotted Lucas, Peyton, and Jake all at a table in the quad, but there was no sign of Nathan anywhere. Maybe he wasn't at school today and Haley wouldn't have to worry about it at all. No such luck. Lucas had made sure to mention something about Nathan being in a meeting this morning with Whitey–he hadn't been on top of his game yesterday and Lucas had a feeling it had something to so with Haley.

Before she knew it, the first bell was ringing, signaling that all the students needed to get to class. And Haley had made it through her first half of the day without having to see Nathan at all, which actually wasn't that surprising because the only time she would have seen him in the morning would have been in the quad before school had started.

Haley was at her locker putting her books away before she headed off towards the quad for lunch when she saw Lucas walking that way with a red-headed girl that she had never seen before. The girl was gorgeous, there was no denying it. She had beautiful, long hair that was the perfect shade of red–it wasn't like that carrot-top kind of red. From where Haley was standing it looked at like the girl had green eyes, but she couldn't be too sure. She was tall and thin. And she was definitely turning heads. From guys because she was gorgeous and from girls because she apparently was their new competition.

Once Haley had reached the regular round table that she normally sat at with all of her friends she saw that Brooke was sitting next to Lucas and on his other side was the same red-headed girl from the hallway. On her other side was Nathan, then Jake, and finally Peyton, which left her a spot to sit in between Brooke and Peyton. It also happened to be directly across from the spot where Nathan was sitting.

"Hey Hales, this is Rachel." Lucas said as she sat down. None of them had really been sure if Haley was going to be sitting there today after she had eaten in the Tutoring Center yesterday. "She's new here." He added before turning to Rachel. "This is my best friend, Haley." He introduced. Typical Lucas. He was such a nice guy even to this new girl that he didn't even know.

"Hi." Haley said quietly. She wasn't sure what it was, but she got a weird feeling from Rachel. Haley looked next to her to see Brooke staring daggers at the girl. She wondered what that was all about. Apparently Brooke didn't like her either.

Rachel ignored Haley's greeting as she looked her over and rolled her eyes. Haley's eyes narrowed–who was this girl?!

"So now you know everyone." Haley heard Lucas say to Rachel.

"How did you meet her?" Peyton asked Lucas curiously.

"Oh, Lucas is a couple of my classes." Rachel answered for Lucas.

"Didn't know your name was Lucas." Haley heard Brooke mutter under her breath. Haley stifled a laugh and elbowed Brooke in the side as if warning her to be nice. Just because Haley got a weird feeling from Rachel didn't mean she was right about her. They didn't know her.

"So, Nathan, do you play any sports because these muscles are pretty big, you must work out." Rachel said as she put one of her hands on Nathan's arm to feel his muscles.

Haley's eyes flew up from her food to look across the table. Her lower lip found it's way in between her teeth as she watched Rachel's hand all over Nathan. She forced herself to focus back on her lunch.

"Yeah, basketball." He answered dryly as he removed her hand from his arm. Normally he was all for chicks being all over him, but after Haley and then his screw up with Haley he was a little uncomfortable with that–especially with her being at the table.

It didn't seem to faze Rachel that Nathan removed her hand as she continued. "Basketball, huh? I used to shoot some hoops. You know for some cardio-workout." She winked in his direction.

Brooke huffed. "I bet that's not the only way she gets her regular cardio workout." Brooke whispered to Haley.

Haley's eyes widened as Brooke whispered to her. She couldn't believe this. Why couldn't she have went to eat lunch in the Tutoring Center again? Oh yeah, because she wasn't letting this effect her. What a fucking lie.

"You play?" Nathan asked–now interested. He didn't know any girls that liked sports, let alone played basketball on their own.

Rachel smiled victoriously now that she had seemed to capture Nathan's attention. He was hott and she made it him her goal. At first it had been Lucas, but his half-brother was hotter. She nodded and began telling him about they should get together some time for a one on one game.

Haley thought she was going to be sick. She needed to get out of there. She felt like she was being suffocated. She couldn't watch this and she couldn't listen to this. Haley excused herself as she stood up from the table. "I have to go...I just remembered that I have to...um, I had to squeeze in an extra tutoring session because of a test...I forgot about it. See you guys later." She stammered on her lie before rushing away from the table before she threw up or had an emotional break down.

Brooke raised an eyebrow in question to Haley's quick excuse to leave. She wanted to follow her friend, but she knew that Haley needed some time by herself. She made a mental note to talk to Haley about this later.

Nathan looked over to where Haley had just been sitting to see her making her way back into the school. He turned to find Brooke and Peyton giving him death stares. Even Lucas was looking at him weird. "What?" He asked innocently. He hadn't done anything to her.

He had kept his promise that he made to Brooke and left Haley alone. It was a stupid promise and he didn't know why he had agreed to it, but he promised Brooke that he would Haley alone for at least couple of days to give her some time to herself.

He was hurting real badly ever since the night that Haley had left him at the restaurant. He wished he could have done things differently, but he didn't and he couldn't go back in time and change anything. He had tried called her, but Haley turned her phone off. Then he had even tried going over to her house to apologize, but Brooke had made it perfectly clear that he wasn't welcome there before she proceeded to slam the door in his face.

Then yesterday he hadn't even seen her all day. Even in the two classes he had with her, Haley had been able to successfully manage to avoid him at all costs. He hadn't been able to talk to her, but that didn't stop him from staring at her throughout the length of both of those classes.

This was even having an effect on his game. He couldn't make a shot at all yesterday and that was why Whitey had called him into his office early this morning before school started, which once again made him miss seeing Haley.

He had been surprised to see her at the lunch table today, but he was happy that she seemed to be not avoiding him today. Maybe he could finally get a chance to talk to her at their tutoring session this afternoon. Hopefully.

He needed her to listen to him or he would never get a chance to apologize. And he needed to apologize. She had to listen to him.

Haley grabbed another paper towel from the dispenser as she carefully dabbed at her eyes. She didn't need her make-up all over her face so that everyone could tell that she had been crying inside of the girls' bathroom during the rest of her lunch period.

She tossed the wad of paper towels into the trash can and checked her appearance in the mirror. She stood there staring at her reflection for a few minutes. No one would know she had been crying unless they really looked at her eyes, which were slightly red. Thankfully they weren't all puffy.

She didn't know how she was going to deal with this. She hadn't taken into the consideration the fact that girls were going to be over all Nathan even more now that he was single again. This might be harder than she had thought.

Two classes later she was sitting in her assigned seat as she waited for the class to begin. She could feel someone standing above her. She looked up as they cleared their throat and her brown eyes met those pretty blue ones–Nathan's. Haley looked back down because she didn't trust herself to not get lost in his eyes.

"Haley." He said, but she continued to ignore him. "Alright, look, do you think that we can talk maybe during–"

"Mr. Scott." The teacher's loud voice boomed as she entered the classroom, interrupting his sentence. "Take you seat." She said and pointed in the direction of his empty desk.

Haley silently thanked her teacher because then Nathan would have asker her to meet him to talk and she couldn't that. Definitely not yet. She wasn't ready to. And she didn't know when she would be. If she would be.

At the end of the day Nathan walked down the hall towards the Tutoring Center. This was the first tutoring session since his break up with Haley so he wasn't really sure what to expect. He opened the door and walked, but he didn't see Haley there so he figured he would sit at their usual table and wait for her.

"Hi." A girl's voice squeaked. Nathan looked up to see a small girl with dark hair and glasses standing in front of him. "I'm Gigi. Your new tutor." She said with a smile as she waved her hand.

Nathan's eyebrows furrowed. "New tutor?" He asked incredulously. "What do you mean?" He asked her.

"Haley and I traded students." Gigi informed him. "Didn't she tell you? She said she would."

Nathan shook her head. "She must have forgot to." He said although he knew that that probably wasn't true, that she just didn't tell him and she probably hadn't planned on telling him.

"Probably. So, do you want to get started?" Gigi asked.

"Actually, I have basketball practice. Sorry." He said before storming out of the Tutoring Center. He and Haley needed to talk, whether she liked it or not. And that's exactly where he was going now.


	20. Confrontations

**Thanks so much for the wonderful reviews. I love them. ****So there's only going to be two more chapters after this and they're already completed so they should be up soon. ****And I have another story in the works, so hopefully I wil start posting that soon. **

**Hope you like this chapter. Please review.**

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The roaring engine slowly died down before coming to a complete stop. Nathan got out of his car slamming the car door shut behind him. He angrily walked up the empty driveway of the James' house. He knew that he should have waited a little while to allow himself to cool off because he was really pissed off right now. As soon as he reached the front door he pounded on it loudly a couple of times and paced back and forth on the porch as he waited for an answer. None came. Nathan pounded on the door a little louder a few more times. Still no answer.

Giving up, Nathan took it upon himself to let himself in the James' house. He immediately found Haley sitting Indian style on the couch in the living room with her iPod earphones in her ears and some sort of homework placed on her lap. At least that explained why she hadn't answered his rapid knocking on the door.

He moved to stand in front of Haley hoping that it would somehow capture her attention. It didn't. He bent down to wave one of his hands in front of her face. "Haley!" He said loudly.

Haley's head snapped up and she felt like she jumped ten feet off the couch as a hand came waving in front of her face. She pulled the earphones from her hears and switched her iPod off. "Oh my God." She half whispered. "What the hell are you doing?" She asked heatedly, her eyes narrowing at the sight of her ex-boyfriend standing in front of her in her living room.

"Trying to get your attention." He said obviously.

"No, what do you think you're doing here, in my house?" She stood up and asked even more enraged. He was the last person she wanted to see right now. Especially in her house. Hadn't he realized by now that she was avoiding him and didn't want to talk to him?

"I have to talk to you." He demanded. Her avoiding him had gone on long enough. They needed to talk about all the recent events that were weighing on each of their shoulders. He couldn't sit back and watch her avoid him everyday. Not when he had important things to say to her.

He had been miserable since their horrible date where she found out the truth about the bet and left him sitting there. He had been moping around and brooding since. He just hadn't showed it when he had been at school. He didn't want people feeling more pity than they already did for his sorry ass.

Haley shook her head frantically. "No way." She said angrily. "You cannot come barging into my house demanding to talk to me. Besides I don't even want to talk to you. Get out." She said as she pointed in the direction of the door.

It was Nathan's turn to shake his head. "No, Haley, we have to talk about all this. And I'm not leaving until we do."

Haley huffed in annoyance crossed her arms in front of her over her chest. "No." She said determined not to get into this dreaded conversation. She didn't want to have it. Definitely not now. "Nathan,–"

"A new tutor!?" He yelled randomly. He didn't expect to just yell that out, but he had. He was pissed about the fact that she had just 'traded' him to another tutor without asking him first or even letting him know at all. He didn't want a new tutor. In fact, in the beginning he hadn't even wanted Haley as a tutor. But she hadn't treated him like some brainless jock or an idiot. She had been patient with him when he didn't understand something and she had taught him easier ways to learn things. It turned out that he wasn't almost failing because he was stupid, he was almost failing because he didn't pay attention or put enough effort into his school work. At least not as much as effort as he put into basketball and other things. Now he had hoped that during their tutoring sessions he could somehow use them to get Haley to talk to him and possibly forgive him, but then she went and did this 'student trading' thing with that other tutor–Gerri was it? No, Gigi–yeah that was it. "Were you ever going to tell me?" He asked.

"You really have no right to be mad at me right now." She gritted out.

"Don't avoid the question. Were you going to tell me?" He repeated.

Haley huffed before answering, "No. I wasn't going to tell you, okay? Are you happy now? Now can you leave?" She yelled. She had been trying to ignore all her feelings, but Nathan really wasn't helping with that. She just wanted him to go home and leave her alone.

"No. We have to talk." He insisted. He was there for a reason–to talk things out with her, and he didn't plan on leaving until they did. It didn't matter if she didn't want to talk with him. He had left her alone for a few days and now it was time for them to talk things through.

Haley continued to stand there with her arms folded across her chest. She didn't want to talk to him, but she could tell that he wasn't giving up on this and she knew that the only way he was leaving here was if he talk to her.

Besides maybe she should get this over with. The sooner they had this conversation the sooner she could continue on with her life.

Nathan sighed as he realized that she wasn't going to say anything, so he guessed that he was going to have to start. "Look, Haley, I'm sorry–"

"Save it, Nathan. I don't want to hear you apologize a million times. So if that was your plan, you can leave now." She interrupted him. She didn't need a bunch of strung together apologies and she didn't want to hear them either. It would only be a waste of both of their time.

"Can you let me talk?" He asked even though it was more of a command.

She sighed and rolled her eyes as she waited for him to continue. She knew she was being a mega-bitch, but she couldn't help it. She didn't want him to see her being vulnerable and weak. She wasn't going to let him make her cry. There was no way that she would shed tears in front of him. She had promised herself that. She was going to stand here and pretend this wasn't effecting her as badly as it really was. She didn't want him to know how much she really was hurting.

"Listen, I never meant for any of this to happen. I never meant for Tim to think of that stupid bet or get you involved. Using you when you were drunk was a jackass move on my part. And I did because I knew there was no way that you would ever to agree to help me with he bet if you sober-"

"You didn't ask." She said in a sickeningly sweet voice. She huffed at the look he was giving her that was telling her that she knew he was right. "Continue." She gritted out although she didn't really want to hear anymore.

Nathan nodded his head. "Like I said, you never would have agreed to help me. It was stupid of me to take advantage of the fact that you had been drinking that night. And I shouldn't have done it. But if I didn't then we probably never would have even started acting civil towards each other and then become friends, which eventually led to us being a real couple. I'm not sorry about that. I can't be. Because then that would be like saying that I'm sorry that we ever got together and I'm not." He revealed as he paused to recollect his thoughts. "Haley, I've never liked someone as much as I've liked you. Actually, before you I never really had too many real girlfriends. It was all hook-ups that lasted one night and then I never really saw the girl again, but you probably already knew that. And you didn't care about my past or even how I treated you in the past. I was an ass to you before and we fought all the time. And I wouldn't want to go back to that, but I would if it meant that I had never hurt you–"

"Stop it!" Haley yelled. "You didn't hurt me, Nathan." She lied. "I'm fine. Stop acting like you broke me. It's not like we were in love. It was a stupid high school fling, Nathan. It meant nothing." She lied again. "You didn't hurt me! I don't even miss you!" She yelled as she continued lying, tears prickling in her eyes. "We are over. You don't have to be here right now or ever for that matter because you are no longer obligated to me anymore because the bet is over and if I didn't say it already–congratulations on winning." She spoke harshly.

Nathan blinked a few times. That wasn't true. It couldn't be. "You don't have to lie to me, Haley." He said equally as loud. Why couldn't she just admit that she was hurt and accept his apology? She didn't even have to accept his apology right now, but she could at least be honest and then maybe they could move on from this.

"I'm not lying! I don't miss you!" She loudly repeated. "Just leave me alone!" She yelled back. She was going to say whatever it took to get him to leave because she couldn't stand to listen to him anymore–he was only hurting her even more.

She wish that she didn't have to lie to him. She hated saying these things to him, but she was afraid that if she actually admitted to him how hurt she really was and accepted his apology then she was only going to get hurt again. And that was something that she wouldn't be able to handle. She had to protect herself–protect her feelings for him and her heart because she couldn't take any more pain. It felt as if her heart was shattering into a million tiny pieces. She couldn't go through that again so she decided she was going to keep herself at a distance from him. No matter what it took.

"Fine, Haley!" He yelled infuriated. "If that's what you want, I'll leave you alone since I obviously meant nothing to you!" He spat out one last time before storming out of the room, slamming the front door shut as he left the house.

"Go be with stupid Rach-ho." She cried, using the name Brooke had given to the gorgeous new girl, to his retreating figure as the door slammed. She knew that he hadn't heard her. She wouldn't admit out loud, but she had been so jealous as she watched Rachel shamelessly flirt with Nathan. It had hurt her–she just didn't want to show it.

Haley bit her lip as she collapsed against the couch. She couldn't hold the tears in anymore. They poured down her face. That seemed to be all she did lately. Cry. And she was tired of crying. Especially over Nathan. Haley hastily wiped at her falling tears, wishing them away. She didn't even want to think about Nathan anymore. She just wanted to be over it all. Done.

Nathan sat in his car and punched his fist against the dashboard. He then started his car and sped off, away from Haley's house. He was so pissed off right now. He couldn't believe the things she had just said to him. And right after he had been telling her how sorry he was and would have taken it all back if it meant that he had never hurt her. But apparently he was wrong and according to what Haley had just screamed at him just now, he had never hurt her at all. She then went on to tell him that she didn't even miss him because they meant nothing. Nothing.

He wanted so badly to believe that she was lying. He needed her to start laughing and say she was joking. Something. Anything. As long as she took it all back. They had to mean something to her. They did to him. He couldn't stand the thought of thinking that these last two months were all just a joke to her or that she hadn't felt anything for him at all. If that was true and she hadn't been lying just now then it only meant she had been lying to him for the past two months.

The first time he actually felt something for someone he got screwed over. He had really liked her. She wasn't just some girl that he wanted to sleep with and then never have to see again. He didn't know who he was more mad at. He was infuriated with her and himself. He should have never got attached to her. He should have just used her to win the bet and that was it. No attachment to her whatsoever. No becoming friends. No becoming more than friends. None of that should have ever happened. Well, he learned his lesson. He knew that would be the last time he ever got attached to one girl. He didn't need only one girl when he could have as many as he wanted. He didn't need Haley. He wasn't going to sit around missing her. Definitely not when he had meant nothing at all to her.

Haley picked up all the tissues that surrounded her that were used to wipe away her never-ending stream of tears. She had cried and let it all out of her system and now she wasn't going to cry over this or Nathan anymore. She was done crying and moping around. She needed to get over Nathan Scott and move on with her life.

She was going to concentrate on her school work or find something else to put all her energy into because the last thing she needed nor wanted was another scheming ass of a boy in her life. She needed a break from boys. At least until Brooke found out she wanted to get over Nathan immediately and started setting her up with all these guys she really didn't feel like going out with, but would anyway because she would feel bad when Brooke guilt tripped her into doing so.

Haley got up and rushed up the stairs to her room. The picture of her and Nathan still lay on the ground, although thanks to Peyton and Brooke the shattered glass had been swept up and cleaned up from the floor of her room—if it had been up to her, the glass would have still been laying all over the floor. She had never got around to picking the picture up off of the floor. Mostly because then she would want to rip the picture up and throw it away and she didn't think she would be able to bring herself to do so no matter how bad she really wanted to.

Haley walked over to the corner where the picture was laying carelessly on the ground. She picked up the picture and held it in her hands as she stared at it. She bit her lower lip as she pulled an empty shoe box out from underneath of her bed. Taking in a deep breath, Haley placed the picture in the box. She began gathering all the other pictures that were scattered around her room that were of her and Nathan, including her favorite–the strand of pictures from the photo booth, and everything else that reminded her of Nathan or something that he had given her and she tossed all of those things into the box as well.

She needed to get over Nathan Scott and having reminders of him everywhere would not help with doing so. She could not sit around moping and crying over the fact he had hurt her. She needed to move on with her life and get over Nathan. She wasn't going to miss him anymore and she certainly wasn't going to cry over him anymore. She couldn't let herself, not if she wanted to get over this and protect herself.

She wished it didn't have to be like this, but she couldn't think of any other way. It was going to be hard seeing Nathan all of the time and she would because they have the same group of friends. She knew that she wasn't going to be able to avoid or ignore him forever, but she wasn't so sure that she would be able to befriend him this soon. It had only been a couple of days since the break up and she was still hurting and was still really vulnerable–something she hated being.

She placed the lid on the shoe box and grabbed a black sharpie marker off her desk, labeling the box in big, black letters–NATHAN. She swallowed the lump forming in her throat as she picked up the box and stuck it in the back of her closet. She didn't want it to be anywhere within sight. As long as she no longer had reminders of Nathan and their relationship all over the place.

Haley quickly wiped the remaining tears from her eyes as she heard the door opening, a sure sign that Brooke was home.

"Haley?" She heard Brooke call out from downstairs.

"I'm in my room." She called back and awaited Brooke's pending presence.

"Hello." Brooke sing-songed as she entered Haley's room. Her smile faded as she took in Haley's appearance. It wasn't as bad as it had been when she had come home crying from the restaurant, but it wasn't good either. "What happened?" She asked concerned.

Haley sighed as she got up to go sit on her bed. "Nathan came over." She said softly as she watched Brooke come sit next to her on her bed. She looked over at Brooke. "It was bad." She answered her friend's unasked question.

"Oh, Haley." Brooke sympathized. She had been expecting Nathan and Haley to face each other, knowing that it was bound to happen sooner or later no matter how badly she wanted to protect Haley from it. "What actually happened?" Brooke asked.

Haley took a deep breath. "Oh you mean after he barged in her demanding that I talk him?" She asked sarcastically.

"What?" Brooke asked. She really wished that she had been here. She wanted to help Haley get through this and protect her because Haley was her best friend after all, but she knew that she couldn't keep Haley from hurting from everything forever.

Haley nodded her head. "After that I told him to get out, but instead he started going off on me because I assigned him a new tutor–without him knowing." Haley meekly admitted.

"Why?"

"I couldn't work up enough courage to go to our tutoring session and be with him alone face to face." She confessed. "So he was mad that I didn't tell him about it. Really mad. Then he started to say he was sorry and I turned into a mega-bitch, telling him that I didn't want to hear a million apologies, but I let him continue anyway and he proceeded to give me this huge explanation about how he never meant for any of this to happen or take advantage of the fact that I was drunk to help him win his bet or whatever and he said that it was stupid and he did it because he knew that I never would have helped him if I know exactly what I was agreeing to. Then he said if he hadn't done this we wouldn't have become friends and got together but he would take it all back if it meant that I didn't get hurt. He was being really sweet and so Mega-bitch Haley came back." Haley said and placed her hands over her face. "I was so mean to him, Brooke."

"What did you say?" She asked as she rubbed her hand soothingly in circles on Haley's back.

"That he didn't hurt me and I didn't even miss him. That I was over it because it meant nothing and that he didn't even have to come over because he wasn't obligated to me anymore since he won his bet and it's over." Haley told Brooke everything. She looked over at Brooke. "It was all lies." She confessed.

"Why did you say it then?" Brooke asked.

"Because I was trying to keep my guard up. I didn't want him to see me vulnerable and hurt. Because I don't want to get hurt again." Haley quietly revealed to her best friend. "I can't get hurt again.

"It's going to be okay, Tutor-Girl." Brooke consoled. "It'll get better."

"Promise?" Haley whispered as she leaned her head on her best friend's shoulder.

Brooke nodded. "Promise." She said even though both girls could only hope that that was the truth.

He dribbled the orange ball up and down the court. He needed to release some of his anger in other ways than by punching things—which had been something that he had been accustomed to recently. This was his savior. Basketball always helped him get through everything–no matter what it was. But it didn't seem to be working today.

Nathan shot the ball at the hoop and watched as it bounced off the rim and rolled onto the court. He let out a frustrated sigh as he once again missed the shot–a shot he had made a million times before, a shot he could make with his eyes closed.

In fact, he hadn't made a single shot since he had been out here. It was pathetic. This was ridiculous. He couldn't even concentrate on the game he loved because of his confrontation with Haley.

He was still livid about the things she had said to him. Honestly, he was still in shock that half those things had came out of her mouth. She had to be lying to him. He needed her to be lying to him because he just couldn't believe that that was true.

He had never seen Haley act like that before or say those kind of things, not even when the 'hated' each other, and he hated that he had been the cause of it. He hated himself for causing this all to happen.

He wished that he could just forget about her and forget what they had, but it wasn't that simple. He couldn't get her off his mind, no matter what he did. It seemed impossible.

To make matters even worse, Haley seemed to want nothing at all to do with him. This was just great.

He didn't know what he was going to do. He had to get over Haley James. He would show her–he didn't need her as much as she had said that she didn't need him.

He was Nathan Scott after all. He could have any girl that he wanted–it just so happened the girl he wanted didn't seem to want him.


	21. It's not okay

**Thanks so much for the reviews. They're the best. So there's only one more chapter after this. I'll post the summary for my next story at the bottom - let me know what you think. Don't forget to review. Enjoy.**

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It was finally Friday. The weekend had arrived. To the majority of the student population at Tree Hill High that meant it was a night of partying. Something they had most likely looked forward to throughout the whole week. A break from homework, tests, papers, and annoying teachers.

But one girl named Haley James was not looking forward to going to any kind of party tonight. Or the whole weekend at all. She had not had such a good week and partying was just something that she wasn't up to. Not to mention that she wasn't a big partier to begin with anyway. But she knew that there was no way that Brooke would let her stay home and wallow in her own self pity like she wanted to. According to Brooke, that was not even considered an option. Basically, Haley had no choice except to go to the party of Brooke's choosing tonight and act like she was at least having a good time while she was there. Oh how much fun that would be.

"Tutor-Girl!" Brooke sing-songed as she made her way into her best friend's room. "Ready to pick out our party outfits?" She asked excitedly. There was nothing better than picking out a hott outfit to go partying in.

Haley rolled her eyes. Brooke asked her as if she even had a choice. God forbid that she told Brooke that she wasn't going because she wanted to sit at home in her sweatpants watching old movies and gaining ten pounds from pigging out on yummy junk food. "Whatever you say, Brookie." She said disinterestedly as her eyes unconsciously continued to drift towards her closet.

Brooke's smile faltered as she followed Haley's gaze. Normally, this would be a good thing because clothes are in closets, but Brooke knew that Haley wasn't interested in the clothes in there, but that her friend was more interested in the box that was sitting in the back of the closet. "You miss him, don't you?" Brooke asked even though both of the girls knew that she didn't really have to ask. It was obvious.

Brooke had already noticed that Haley didn't smile as much anymore. And her eyes didn't have that special sparkle they used to have all the time. Now Haley just sulked a lot and Brooke was worried for her friend. This wasn't how it was supposed to be.

As much as Haley had already done so and wanted to continue to deny it, she just couldn't anymore. They both knew that she missed Nathan. There was no denying it anymore. It was no use.

It had been six days since the break up and Haley was taking this harder than Brooke had thought. Of course Brooke knew that Haley would be hurt, but she didn't think that Haley's want to stay home eating ice cream would last this long. Haley was always the one who was able to pull herself together even during the toughest times. This wasn't her best friend Haley.

Haley slowly nodded her head before forcing a smile on her face and looking up at Brooke. "I'll be okay." She said. "I promise." She added when a look of doubt briefly crossed Brooke's facial features. "Now come on, use your sense of fashion and pick out some great outfits." She said as happily as possible to try to divert the attention away from her loneliness and miserableness.

Brooke decided to just believe Haley for now and hope that she was telling her the truth. She wanted Haley to be okay. She needed Haley to be okay. "Let's go." She said, grabbing Haley's hand and pulling her across the hall to raid her fashion trendy closet.

"This?" Brooke asked after doing some digging in her closet.

Haley scrunched up her face. "What_ is_ that?" She asked tilting her head to the side as if that would help her identify what the mystery item that was in Brooke's hand was.

"A shirt." Brooke said as if it was the most obvious thing. "Duh."

"This," She said referring to what she was wearing. "is a shirt. That," She said pointing at Brooke's hand. "is definitely not a shirt." Haley explained looking at the so called 'shirt' that looked like a tiny scarp of material. There was no way that was a shirt and there was no way that she would ever wear it either.

Brooke laughed and rolled her eyes. "Whatever Tutor-Girl." She said tossing the shirt before turning back to her closet, knowing that there was no way that Haley would ever wear it so there was no point in trying to persuade her into doing so. It wasn't like she ever thought that Haley would possibly agree to it anyway.

"Brooke, not slutty, okay." Haley seriously warned. She knew that Brooke liked to get carried away when choosing outfits for other people.

"Yeah, whatever you say." Brooke dismissed with a wave of her hand. "Besides, we want all the guys to notice you." Brooke reminded as she continued searching through her clothes. "It'll make he-who-shall-not-be-named jealous." She happily sing-songed.

In Brooke's personal opinion Haley needed to forget all about Nathan Scott. She needed to move on. Put herself back out there in the dating world. There was no point in sitting around moping about past events that you couldn't change. The way Brooke saw it was; Haley was hott and she should take full advantage of that. Brooke was determined to find Haley a couple of guys who were willing to take her mind off of stupid Nathan Scott. She just couldn't let Haley know this yet because she knew that Haley wouldn't be happy with this idea and do everything in her power to stop it.

"Mmm-hmm." Haley mumbled. She didn't really want to think about 'he-who-shall-not-be-named' right now. It was all she had been doing recently–even more so than when she had been dating him—which probably wasn't a good thing; no definitely not a good thing.

Maybe going to a party wouldn't be such a bad thing tonight. She would be able to let loose and have fun instead of dwelling on the events of the past week. Which she knew was only Brooke's intention from the beginning anyway.

Haley decided that since she had no choice except to go to the party, then she might as well have a good time while she was there. She made herself a promise herself not to sulk and think about Nathan. There was also the possibility that he wouldn't even be there. That was the possibility she was hoping for at least.

"Find anything yet?" She wondered as she watched Brooke toss clothes every which way over her shoulder.

"Give me ten more minutes." Brooke called out from the inside of her closet.

Lucas held his cell phone to his ear and listened to it ring continuously. He sighed when there was no answer. He hung up and dialed the same number again. Finally after five rings he heard the voice grumble what he figured was a 'hello'.

"Nate?" He asked into he phone. His brother had been such a grouch recently. He knew it was because of the break up with Haley. Things hadn't ended so well between the two of them. Lucas was actually kind of worried about Nathan. He had never seen Nathan act like this before. Never because of a girl before. Lucas knew he needed to do something about it. He couldn't just sit around watching his brother act like this.

He had watched his brother at school the past week and saw as Nathan acted as if there was nothing that was bothering him, but Lucas was beginning to see Nathan close more and more people off. Lucas could tell that Nathan was just putting up this facade. Probably to protect himself because he was hurting.

"What?" Nathan growled into the phone. Why wouldn't people just leave him alone?

"What are you doing tonight?" Lucas asked trying not to be too obvious about his concerns for his brother, but knowing that he was failing miserably.

He listened to Nathan grumble some sort of response and sighed. "Okay, that's it. I'm coming over in an hour and a half and we're going out." Lucas demanded.

"Luke–" Nathan began to protest before Lucas interrupted him.

"No. You're going. I'll see you in an hour and a half." He said before hanging up and not giving Nathan a chance to object.

About two hours later Lucas' truck was pulling up to the house. Music booming. People all over the place, a few of them passed out on the front lawn. Lucas rolled his eyes at the sight as he and Nathan made their way to the front door even if his brother was doing so reluctantly.

Nathan followed Luke as he led them past masses of people. Finally realizing where they had stopped he made a mental note to kill his brother later. He shifted uncomfortably as it felt like everyone who was in the small group was looking at him. Including her–even if it was only for a second before she diverted her gaze elsewhere.

"Hey guys." Brooke greeted breaking the silence. Even though she was mad at Nathan for breaking Haley, she still was being civil towards him. At least in public. For now.

Haley nervously chewed on her bottom lip. She felt really uncomfortable with this situation. It wasn't that she had expected not to see him there, it was a party after all. She just didn't think that they would be this close. She had figured she could have avoided him with so many people being here. Guess not.

Haley looked past her friends and saw Rach-ho heading their way. Just great. She felt Brooke give her arm a small squeeze. Apparently Brooke had seen her coming too. She looked over at friend and gave the strongest smile she could manage. Haley then grabbed Brooke's cup from her other hand and began drinking it. She made a disgusted face at the gross taste that slid down her throat, but continued drinking it anyway. This situation was already too much and it was only the beginning of the night. "I need a refill." Haley muttered with a fake smile plastered on her face as she watched Rachel slither herself smack in between Lucas and Nathan. Haley felt like she was going to be sick if she had to watch Rach-ho with Nathan all night long. There went the promise she had made to herself earlier about not wanting to sulk and think about Nathan tonight.

Brooke had informed Haley that before Rachel had eyed Nathan, she had been eye-ing Lucas. Hating her was just one more thing that the two girls had in common.

Nathan watched Brooke follow his ex-girlfriend who had just walked away from their small group of six, well now seven since Rachel decided to come over.

He didn't want to admit it anymore, but he missed Haley. A lot. He had never expected this to happen to him. Two months ago, he never would have thought that he would end up liking a girl so much that he couldn't stand to be away from her. And to think that that girl would be Haley was an even bigger surprise. He just wished he could think of a way to get Haley to forgive him and give him another chance. He had given her some space and time to cool off and tried to apologize and that didn't work out. Then he had tried to act like he didn't care anymore, thinking that maybe he would be able to convince himself that he didn't want her anymore, but that really wasn't working either. He didn't know what to do anymore.

He cringed inside as he felt Rachel wrap her hands around his arm. He smirked at her before removing her hands off of him. She was always trying to touch him constantly and it was annoying the hell out of him. Sure, Rachel was pretty, and he was almost positive that about almost every guy wanted her, but just not him. A few months ago—hell yeah, but now—there was no way.

"Come on, Nate, let's go get a drink." Rachel suggested as she grabbed hold of his hand and began pulling him into the kitchen.

Nathan rolled his eyes, but for some unknown reason allowed her to drag him to the kitchen. Maybe it was because he could really use a drink.

Rachel grabbed two plastic cups and shoved them into one of Nathan's hands. "Get us some drinks, Nate." She practically ordered as she pushed him towards the keg and smiled viciously as she spotted Haley and Brooke out of the corner of her eye.

Nathan groaned and scrunched up his face in disgust at the way she said his nickname. He never wanted to hear that again from her. It just didn't sound as good as how naturally it used to roll of Haley's tongue.

If he had to deal with Rachel for the rest of the night he was going to go insane. He needed to find a way to get rid of her because telling her to leave him alone and go away doesn't work. He had figured that out over the past couple of days. She had been hanging around him constantly and it was driving him crazy. She just didn't go away.

Brooke raised her eyebrows at the use of Nathan's nickname coming from Rachel. She hadn't realized they were that close already. She shot a glance at Haley and immediately knew that Haley wasn't okay with this. Rachel was trying to be all over Nathan and Brooke didn't doubt that Rachel knew Haley was standing right here.

Even though Rachel had showed up post-Naley, it wasn't a secret that they had dated and Brooke knew that Rachel knew they had been together, besides the fact that it was so obvious they still liked each other. Well at least Brooke noticed this–even if they were both pretending that that wasn't the case.

"You okay?" Brooke asked quietly so that only Haley could hear her.

Haley plastered a big, fake smile on her face. "I'm fine." She stated sarcastically before grabbing her drink and walking away.

Brooke watched her best friend go before turning around and narrowing her eyes. She made her way over to Nathan and Rachel. "I just need to borrow him for one second." She said sweetly as she grabbed Nathan's arm and pulled him away from Rachel and everyone else. As soon as they were alone Brooke dropped her smile and narrowed her eyes again. "What the hell is the matter with you?" She hissed.

"What? What are you talking about?" He asked confusedly. What the hell is going on?, He thought.

"I'm talking about you and Rach-ho." She clarified. "Why are you hanging around her? Especially when you still love Haley and she still loves you?"

His eyes widened at her words. "What did you just say?" He asked stunned.

"What, can't you hear?"

"You just said I still love Haley and she still loves me." He repeated her exact words, his mind going into over-drive; thoughts rapidly moving from one thing to another.

"Yeah so what?" Brooke asked confused. Her eyes then widened as she clasped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my God!" She gasped. "I can't believe I just said that." She said more to herself. She hadn't even been thinking about it. She had been so furious with Nathan being with Rachel that she hadn't thought about what she was saying. "Do you?" She finally asked, bringing Nathan out of his own thoughts.

"What? No. No." He denied profusely, shaking his head. He wasn't, he couldn't be in love with Haley–or just in love at all. "Did she say something to you?" He asked curiously.

"No, I just, well I can just see it. Kind of." She stuttered. Brooke wasn't one to get nervous, but she had just blurted out how her friend feels about this boy to said boy and Haley hadn't even admitted it yet. This was not good. Not good at all.

"Brooke–"

"No." She said cutting him off. "We never had this conversation. Got it? Great." She said answering her own question before leaving.

Nathan stood there stunned for a few more minutes. He wasn't sure what had just happened. First Brooke was yelling at him and then she was blabbing about him and Haley being in love. And now she wouldn't even tell him if that was true or not. He didn't think that he was in love with Haley, but maybe...

"Nathan." An annoying, voice whined pulling him from his own thoughts. "What was Brooke talking to you about?" Rachel nosily questioned.

"It was nothing." He quickly dismissed. This wasn't something that he wanted to talk about with her. Not that she would probably even want to listen if he did. "I'll be right back." He lied as he started walking away from her.

"Wait. Where are you going?" Rachel asked.

"Uh, bathroom." Another lie. He just wanted to get away from her. Plus he had a lot on his mind right now thanks to his brother's girlfriend.

Nathan made his way out the back door of the house after making sure that Rachel wasn't watching him. The last thing he needed was for her to see where he was really going and follow him.

He ran a hand over his face and sighed. He had never thought about being in love before. Not until Brooke had just now mentioned it, the word 'love' had never really been considered.

Sure, he knew that he was taking his break up with Haley rather hard, but he just figured it was normal. After all, Nathan had never had a real break up before this so he wasn't really sure how he was supposed to be feeling.

But now things were beginning to get noticeably clearer. Like why he wanted to be with her all of the time constantly and even when he wasn't with her, he was thinking about her—like she was permanently embedded into his mind. It felt as if there was an ache in his heart after Haley had walked away from him that night at the restaurant. But love had never actually been what he thought it was. Now he was pretty sure that is it was.

He squinted his eyes to get a better view of the person sitting by themselves on a swing that was attached to a tree. He could only see the back of them, but he soon realized that that person on the swing was Haley.

Taking in a deep breath he made his way over to the swing. "What are you doing here by yourself?" He tried to ask casually as he shoved his hands in the front pockets of his jeans.

"What?" She asked startled, briefly looking at him as she swished her drink around in her plastic cup with her free hand.

"Hales." He whispered softly.

She swallowed. "Don't." She replied equally as soft.

"Haley, I am so sorry. Please just forgive me. I need you to forgive me." He pleaded, his voice thick with emotion.

She closed her eyes for a moment and took in a sharp breath before turning to face him. "You broke my heart." She whispered quietly.

"I never meant to Haley. And I'm beating myself up for it everyday." He admitted. "I made a mistake, but my mistake resulted in us, so I can't say that I would take it back because I'm not positive that I would."

Haley stood up from the swing. "I really can't be hearing this right now." She choked out. She moved to walk away, but Nathan reached out and gently grabbed her wrist to pull her back, her cup falling to the ground. "Nathan, please let go." She asked.

Nathan shook his head. "I can't. I won't let you go." He said. "Please, Haley."

As much as she wanted to she couldn't hold back her tears any longer. Nathan pulled her into a hug. She tried to fight it, punching his chest to get out of his embrace, but it was no use. He was too strong and he wasn't letting go. Haley soon relented and collapsed in his arms. He held her up as she cried into his shirt. He could feel her tears soaking through the material. He sat down on the swing and lifted her onto his lap. He brushed her hair away from her face, tucking it behind her ear.

She finally calmed down a few minutes later. She couldn't believe that she had just pretty much had a breakdown right in front of. Even after she had promised herself that she was done crying over this. And that she definitely wasn't going to cry in front of him.

She looked into his eyes, his pretty, piercing, blue eyes that she could never get enough of. She willed herself to look away, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. There was such an intense gaze in his eyes that she couldn't quite describe.

"You okay?" He asked carefully.

She nodded her head. "Uh-huh."

"I need to tell you something." He announced a few minutes later.

"Okay." She said unsurely, but indicated that she was listening to him.

"Um, I don't really know how...well I...I love you. I'm in love with you." He stuttered to get out. He was extremely nervous and scared. Especially since he had never been in love with anyone before. And because he wasn't too sure about the timing either, but he knew that he had to tell her how he was feeling. She needed to know.

"Oh." She said barely audible. She immediately got off of his lap and stood in front of him.

"Hales?" He asked confused.

"Uh, thank you?" She said before her bottom lip made it's way in between her teeth and her eyebrows furrowed as if she was in deep concentration.

He raised his eyebrows. "Thank you? That's all you have to say?" He asked incredulously. He couldn't believe this. He hadn't been expecting he to say it back, he had hoped she would, but he also hadn't expected her to say 'Thank you.' He wasn't sure what he expected anymore. Now that he thought about it he didn't really think about what she would say because he had been so nervous about getting that out.

"Nathan–"

"No, it's okay." He cut her off. "Look, I uh, I gotta go." He muttered before walking away and leaving her standing there alone.

* * *

**New story summary: Haley James and Lucas Scott had been best friends forever. The only thing about him that she didn't like was his brother Nathan. But maybe it only seemed like she didn't like him because she was covering up his real feelings towards him. And now she's moving into their house for the summer.**

**Let me know what you think about it.**

**PS; I can't wait for the new episode tonight. But why are all the promos always Peyton??**


	22. Because of a bet

**Wow, thanks so much everyone for all the amazing reviews - over 200! You all are the best. I had never expected that many for my first story. **

**I'm sad to say that this is last chapter so please review. **

**And keep an eye for my new story which I should be posting soon.**

* * *

Haley walked across the hall. She really needed some advice from her best friend right about now. The night before had been horrendous. And she needed to talk to her best friend about what had happened. She had wanted to talk to her about what happened last night right after it had happened, but she couldn't make herself do so. She needed some more time. Besides she didn't want to ruin Brooke's night as well, so she had just told Brooke that she was going to head home early. And like a good best friend, Brooke had given Haley the keys to her itty-bitty, blue convertible—courtesy of Mommy Davis and Daddy Davis Dearest—and assured Haley that Lucas would give her a ride home.

After getting no response to knocking on the door to Brooke's room, Haley turned the handle on the door and pushed it open. A laugh escaped her mouth once she entered the room and she saw Brooke half hanging off the bed with her mouth wide open. Oh how Haley wished she had a camera right now. Too bad the batteries for her camera were dead.

Haley made her way over to the bed and sat on the other side where Brooke wasn't occupying any space. "Wake up, Brookie." Haley sing-songed loudly. It was around eleven thirty and she shouldn't have been surprised that Brooke was still sleeping. She always was late sleeper; especially compared to Haley, who was always a rise-with-the-sun kind of girl.

Brooke shot up from her spot instantly causing her to fall off the bed onto her plush, carpeted floor. "Ouch!" She whined as she landed hard on her butt. "Haley!" She cried.

"What?" Haley managed to ask in between her bubbling laughter. She couldn't help herself. It was funny.

"Help me up." She demanded. "It's your fault I'm on the floor anyway." Brooke said as she reached out her arms for Haley to come help her get up.

"What?! How is my fault that you fell off the bed? It's not like I pushed you off." Haley laughed as she crawled to the other side of the bed to help her stubborn friend, knowing that Brooke would sit there complaining until Haley helped her up.

"Well it was your wake up call that forced me to fall therefore it is your fault." Brooke explained as Haley pulled her up off the floor.

"Whatever you say, Brookie." Haley gave up as she watched Brooke get back on her bed.

"You got that right." Brooke winked playfully. "So what brings you to room at..." She trailed off, turning to look at the clock. "at 11:35?" She finished and watched Haley tense up a little bit at the question. "What happened?" She asked becoming serious knowing there was something weird going on if Haley tensed at a simple question like that.

Haley laid back against the pillows and closed her eyes as the memory flooded her mind again for what felt like the millionth time since it happened. "Last night Nathan kind of said something to me." She revealed quietly.

Brooke felt anger flow through her at the way Haley spoke. "What did he do to you now?" She asked furiously.

"No, Brooke nothing bad—well, I don't think...I'm not sure."

"So what did he say to you?" She repeated herself.

Haley swallowed hard. She wasn't sure she wanted to have this conversation anymore. But she knew there was no way that Brooke was going to let her off that easy and just forget about this. She took a deep breath before saying, "Nathan told me he was in love me." She confessed quietly.

Brooke's eyes widened. That was unexpected. Maybe not so much as the night before came back into play.

_Brooke watched her best friend go before turning around and narrowing her eyes. She made her way over to Nathan and Rachel. "I just need to borrow him for one second." She said sweetly as she grabbed Nathan's arm and pulled him away from Rachel and everyone else. As soon as they were alone Brooke dropped her smile and narrowed her eyes again. "What the hell is the matter with you?" She hissed._

"_What? What are you talking about?" He asked confusedly. 'What the hell is going on?' He thought._

"_I'm talking about you and Rach-ho." She clarified. "Why are you hanging around her? Especially when you still love Haley and she still loves you?" _

_His eyes widened at her words. "What did you just say?" He asked stunned. _

"_What, can't you hear?" _

"_You just said I still love Haley and she still loves me." He repeated her exact words._

"_Yeah so what?" Brooke asked confused. Her eyes then widened as she clasped a hand over her mouth. "Oh my God!" She gasped. "I can't believe I just said that." She said more to herself. She hadn't even been thinking about it. She had been so furious with Nathan being with Rachel that she hadn't thought about what she was saying. "Do you?" She finally asked, bringing Nathan out of his own thoughts._

"_What? No. No." He denied profusely, shaking his head. "Did she say something to you?" He asked curiously._

"_No, I just, well I can just see it. Kind of." She stuttered. Brooke wasn't one to get nervous, but she had just blurted out how her friend feels about this boy to said boy and Haley hadn't even admitted it yet. This was not good. Not good at all._

"_Brooke–"_

"_No." She said cutting him off. "We never had this conversation. Got it? Great." She said answering her own question before leaving._

_Uh oh_, Brooke thought. She mentally cured herself and her big mouth. "So what did you say?" She asked carefully. She wasn't sure if Haley was here to yell at her or thank her. Or if Haley even knew that she was one that had put that thought into Nathan's head even though he had it in his heart all along. Haley did, they just both needed a push in the right direction.

Haley frustratingly huffed. "I said 'thank you'. Can you believe that?! Thank you. He tells me that he is in love with me and I thank him. Oh wait, no actually first I said 'oh' and then I said 'thank you'. God, I am such an idiot!" Haley rambled on.

_So she must not know_, Brooke thought to herself. "Uh Hales—"

"What am I supposed to do now?" She looked over at Brooke—not only a fashion expert, but a boy expert as well—for some guidance. "Help me." She cried.

"Are you in love with him?" Brooke asked simply.

"You just get straight to the point, don't you?" Haley muttered under her breath all the while making sure it was loud enough for Brooke to hear.

"Haley?" Brooke prodded.

"I...—"

"Cause that's what it all comes down to you. You know? Either you are in love with him or you aren't. But no ones knows the truth except for you. You just need to admit it to yourself if you are. True love doesn't mean that you won't get in fights or be scared or even break up, it means that you'll always get back together. If you are in love with him, then you need to tell him." Brooke enlightened. "But if you aren't then you have to tell him that too. Because you can't leave it like this, Haley."

"I don't know. I mean I think I might know deep down. But I think I'm afraid to know. Scared to be in love. To be in love with Nathan." Haley admitted softly.

Brooke pulled Haley into a hug. "It's okay, Hales. It's okay to be afraid and scared. But it's also okay to be in love." She told her friend, seeing as she was speaking from experience.

She had been scared to death when she had first realized that she was in love with Lucas. She was afraid to love him, anyone really. She had been afraid to need him and to be vulnerable, but as much as she was afraid she was twice as much in love with him. And her love for him had triumphed her being scared. And in the end he loved her too and it was amazing.

Haley chewed on her lip nervously as she contemplated on knocking on the big, wooden door standing in front of her. She had been standing out here on the door step for the about the past ten minutes now, trying to force herself to knock on the door, but she hadn't had enough will power to do so yet. She wasn't even sure if he would answer if he knew it was her. Or if he would even talk to her once he saw that it was her.

She closed her eyes as she thought back to the night before. Again.

"_Um, I don't really know...well I...I love you. I'm in love with you." He stuttered to get out._

"_Oh." She said barely audible. She immediately got off of his lap and stood in front of him. _

"_Hales?" He asked confused._

"_Uh, thank you?" She said before her bottom lip made it's way in between her teeth and her eyebrows furrowed as if she was in deep concentration._

_He raised his eyebrows. "Thank you? That's all you have to say?" He asked incredulously._

"_Nathan–"_

"_No, it's okay." He cut her off. "Look, I uh, I gotta go." He muttered before walking away and leaving her standing there alone._

She felt horrible. But it had come as such a shock to her. She didn't even know what to think, let alone what to say. So many things were running through her mind at the moment that those three words had come out of his mouth.

She wasn't even sure how she was feeling. Especially after their break up because of her finding out he was basically using her and then having to see Rachel hang all over him and him not do anything to stop it. Her emotions were going crazy and they were all over the place. She couldn't even think properly about how she felt about the whole situation anymore. Everything was so messed up and crazy. She wasn't sure about anything anymore. And the last thing she had expected him to say to her was that he loved her; that he was in love with her.

Her mind had went into over-drive as she heard him say those words to her. She had never expected it and she didn't know what to say. She wasn't sure that she would even be able to say anything at all. But thank you? Seriously? She mentally kicked herself over and over again every time she thought about it. Out of all the things that possibly could've came out of her mouth it just had to be 'thank you'. God, she was such an idiot. And that memory would never let her forget it either.

Nathan probably hated her know. She wouldn't be surprised if he did. If he never wanted to see her face or hear her name again she wouldn't be surprised at that either. She was such an idiot and that had probably hurt him as much as her finding out about the bet had hurt her. And she would never wish that kind of pain on anybody. Not even her worst enemy, let alone Nathan.

But her conversation with Brooke this morning had given her some insight. After they had talked, Haley had retreated back to her bedroom after thanking Brooke. She had sat on her bed just thinking for almost a half an hour straight. She had even realized how long she had been sitting there. She had quickly gotten a shower, blow dried her hair into her natural, frizzy, curls and gotten dressed before rushing out of the house.

Haley took a long, deep breath before she raised her hand to the door. Closing her eyes, she stretched her hand out and knocked on the door three times. Her eyes shot open immediately. She hadn't expected to knock. She didn't think that she would actually knock yet. She wasn't ready for this. Maybe it wasn't too late to run away before some one answered.

She took a couple of steps backwards, away from the door. She could leave and no one would even know it was her. Hopefully. She started to turn around. She was going to make a run for it while she still could.

At least that was what she was planning to do until she heard the door suddenly open and a male voice call out, "Haley?"

Haley clenched her eyes shut tight and slowly turned back around to face the door. Opening her eyes she sighed with a little relief when she saw that it was Lucas who was standing there. "Hi." She said nervously and gave him a small wave of.

"Hey." He responded as he raised a questioning eyebrow at her.

_He must know,_ She thought to herself in her head.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her. "Sorry." He apologized immediately as he realized how mean that must have sounded. This was his best friend after all. "That probably made me sound like a jerk."

"No, it's okay." She assured him.

"You okay?" He asked as he brought her closer for a hug.

"Not really sure right now." She answered just being content with hugging her best friend.

"Yo, Luke, who was at the door?" A voice called out, causing Lucas and Haley to pull away from each other.

"Uh, it's—" Lucas began.

"Haley." Nathan finished as he came into view from behind Lucas.

"Yeah." Lucas said. "Listen, I really should get going." He said knowing that the two of them had some things that they really needed to discuss privately. "See you later?" He asked, reaching his fist out.

Nathan nodded and bumped fists with his brother.

Lucas turned back to Haley and gave her a quick hug. "Good luck." He whispered to her before he let her go and left.

Haley shifted uncomfortably under Nathan's gaze. She felt so awkward standing there on his door step. "Um, maybe, maybe this wasn't such a good idea." She stuttered to get out softly.

Nathan nodded his head as he reached out to shut the door.

"No, wait." Haley said, putting her hand on the door. "We have to talk. I mean I have to talk to you." She explained.

He looked at her expectantly when she didn't say anything else.

"Do you think that I could maybe come in?" She meekly asked him. She never wanted it to be like this. She wished it wasn't like this.

Nathan stood there for a few minutes like he was contemplating on whether or not he was going to let her come inside. He begrudgingly stepped aside, creating space for her to come in. He wasn't really sure if he was going to regret this or not. Not to mention that he really wasn't in the mood to talk to her, but he remembered when he had really wanted to talk to her after the break-up, so going against how badly he felt like slamming the door in her face and telling her to never come back to protect his pride, he allowed her to come inside.

Haley walked in and watched Nathan shut the door. "So I guess sorry is a good start." She said nervously once he turned around to face her.

He folded his arms across his Tree Hill Ravens Basketball T-shirt covered chest.

"Okay, I can see that you're not going to make this easy for me." She said to more to herself than to him even though she spoke out loud. "I, uh, I don't really know where to begin." She laughed nervously.

"What are you doing here, Haley?" Nathan cut in, him finally speaking to her.

"I just have so much to say to you." She told him.

He nodded and motioned for her to follow him when he began walking away from the doorway and towards the living room where he sat on the couch and Haley sat on the the chair facing him.

"I guess I should start from the beginning." She said. "You hurt me Nathan. You hurt me so bad." She said bluntly.

"If you came here to put me down and make feel worse about the stupid bet then you can leave." He said coldly.

"No, that's not why I came here. I just needed you to hear that from me." She explained.

"Well I did, so you don't have to tell me again."

"Moving on." She stated. "I was mad. And sad. And all these other things that I can't even begin to explain. So I'm sorry that I wouldn't talk to you right away, but I couldn't make myself want to listen to you at the time. That's mostly why I avoided you." She told him. "I didn't want to avoid you, I just...I just couldn't be around you."

"I was a super-bitch to you and I'm sorry. You didn't deserve that. Well, you kind of did, but maybe not everything I said. I was pretty harsh." She admitted honestly.

Nathan nodded his head in agreement.

"Oh and I'm also sorry about the whole not telling you about Gigi being your new tutor thing. I shouldn't have done that. You were the one who needed the tutoring and it should have been up to you. It was completely uncalled for an unprofessional. I understand why you were upset about that. "

"And then you had Rach-h—Rachel." She gritted out through her teeth. "And honestly—I was jealous okay. So if that was your intention, well it worked."

"It wasn't." He said.

"What?"

"I wasn't trying to make you jealous." He told her.

"Oh." She said softly. "So you like her?" She asked. "Well, that's, that's good." She said trying to be strong.

"No. I don't like her." He clarified, surprised that that was what Haley thought. Didn't she remember what he had said to her the night before? "She's actually really annoying." He admitted. Only Lucas knew that Nathan couldn't stand Rachel, but for some reason even after everything, he couldn't stand to have Haley thinking that he liked Rachel.

Haley nodded her head. "Okay, so no Rachel." She said. "Well, basically seeing you around her made me feel even worse. I mean it's so obvious that she wants you." She stated with more edge in her voice than she would have liked.

"At least someone wants me." He grumbled. "Sorry." He said almost immediately after.

She nodded. "It's not that I don't want you Nathan. That's not the problem." She admitted. "Last night, when you found me in the backyard, I was mad at you. Mostly because you were hanging out with Rach-ho and I—"

"Rach-what?" He asked amusedly with a smirk forming on his face.

She smiled meekly. "Rach-ho." She repeated. "Brooke and I kind of started calling her that once we saw she liked you and Lucas." She revealed.

"Nice." He said.

She let out a small laugh. "Um, last night when you said that you, well you know...when you said that you loved me; that you were in love with me...um, did you really mean that?" She stuttered to ask.

He nodded his head. "I didn't really know it at first, but when Brooke had mentioned love it kind of all made sense and came to me."

"I felt like such an idiot." She confessed. "I had never felt more stupid in my life then when I said thank you. It's not really how I pictured that happening, you know?"

"Yeah I know."

"Nathan, I am so sorry." She said getting up from her spot on the chair and moving over to the couch to sit next to him, but still leaving a little bit of distance between the two. "I was just so confused about my feelings. I didn't even know how I felt about anything at the time. I know that probably isn't really a good excuse for me being an idiot and saying thank you and oh, but I was just so confused and all of my thoughts were all jumbled together."

"But I though about it all night and all morning. So then I finally went to talk to Brooke and she made me realize that I do love you. I am just so scared. So afraid. Terrified, actually. I don't want to be vulnerable, but that's part of what being in love is about. I am so afraid of getting hurt again and I don't know where to go from here, but I couldn't leave you wondering if I loved you or not, especially after some of the things I had said when you came to talk to me.

"_It's not like we were in love. It was a __stupid__ high school fling, Nathan. It meant nothing." _The harsh words she had spat at him flashed through her mind.

"So here it is. Here I am, being afraid and vulnerable. I love you. And I understand if it's too late or not enough anymore and you want nothing to do with me and—"

"Haley." He cut her off.

"Huh?"

"Thank you." He smirked at her. He closed the distance between them and captured her mouth with his in a fiery, passionate kiss before pulling away and resting his forehead against hers. "Say it again." He demanded against her lips as he brought his mouth back down to hers.

She smiled at him. "I love you." She said breathlessly.

"I love you too, Hales." He said before capturing her lips in a kiss again.

They fell in love—all because of a bet.


End file.
